The Lost Ones
by JenFoxworth
Summary: The darkness begins, as Shadow is kidnapped for expirementation. What does this evil scientist have in mind for him? And who is this one who claims to be his sister? But there is a light, for hope, even as the war begins...
1. Chapter 1

Shadow the hedgehog was silent when he woke up, shocked at wehre he was. For days after his last adventrue he had been wandering around aimlessly, and nothing interesting had happened until now. To fall asleep in a room onboard the ARK, and then wake up in what looked like a laboratory room could be called interesting, however it did not please him.

The black hedgehog stood up, wondering who had done this. Whoever they were, they had taken his shoes, gloves, and chaos emerald. The room was small, about ten by ten feet, and was pure white. There were no cracks in the walls, they were smooth and smelled of steel, and there was only one door.

It was empty save for himself, and upon inspection, he saw the door was firmly sealed and unbreakable. Whoever this is, they certainly don't want me leaving, he thought.

Nothing happened for hours, and as he continued to wait, he noticed a strange smell. It was coming from the walls, and now that he looked closer at them, he saw miniscule holes poked into them.

Shadow suddenly felt a strange tightening in his chest, and he began choking as the foul-sweet scent filled his senses. The hedgehog fell to his knees, clutching neck, struggling to breathe. His vision blurred then went dark and the last thing he remembed was lying on his side on the floor.

When he awoke, he was inside what appearerd to be a glass tube of some sort. It was filling with a green liquid, neaerly at his waist already. Shadow began to struggle, but was weak, and the tubes attacted to his body hindered him.

There was a breathing mask on his face, and as the thick 'water' reached his neck he realized he wasn't able to get out.

Looking through the glass he saw a dark figure standing before him in a white lab coat, the face veiled by the darkness. The hedgehog pressed his hands and forehead to the glass, bowing forward in despair as his sight became blurred from the chemicals. He'd never felt this hopless before, except for that time... With Maria...

"Well, well I see you understand that you've met your match." Shadow lifted his head slightly when he heard this voice, then drooped down again. "Yes, you can hear me, good. And you understand what I'm saying; the drugs haven't affected you as badly as the others I see. Do you know hwy you're here?"

The tormented hedgehog didn't move, he wouldn't give into his captor so easily. He was suddenly thrown back by an electrical shock, the pulse moving so rapidly through his bones and causing him to writhe in pain. It stopped after a couple minutes, leaving him gasping for breath through the mask.

"I'm speaking to you using radio implants in your ears, and some of the wires are hooked up to an electrical generator. If you do not wish to feel that again, I suggest you answer my questions from now on." The beast said.

Shadow closed his eyes, not that they were much use in the tube, and slowly shook his head.

"You are here, to be part of an experiment. You are not the main experiment in itself, but you are vital to the project. There is no way out, so don't even attempt to escape." The voice sounded malicious, and had a sinister laugh to it.

He opened his eyes again, and began growling, but didn't say anything. No one treated him this wa. The governement had always referred to him as a project, while the professor, his creator, had treated him as a living being with feelings. This, this creature, whoever he was, was obviously from the governement.

"Oh ho! Angry now are we? Or worried perhaps? The latter you should be, but you should accept your fate. You will not leave this complex alive, ever. You'll leave this tube, yes, but not this building. Your free will is gone, you will not so much as sleep without my conscent"

Days went by, and Shadow did not see or hear the figure again, nor was he allowed out of the tube. The being was allowing him to sleep, not inducing the lightining in his body again. There seemed to be a nutrition that was being pumped into him from the needles in his chest, because he felt as if he had regained his strength from being electrocuted.

Then, after one nights sleep, he casually glanced to his side and was shocked to see another tube. His vision was blurred, but he could barely make out the form of another hedgehog inside it.

It's probably best I cannot see, he though. The shape was female, smaller and slender then his own frame, and he remembered that the being had taken his own shoes and gloves.

Shadow stopped watching the other captive; the liquid in his tube had changed color. Feeling drowsy, he realized it must be a sleeping chemical before he became unconscious.

Opening his eyes, he saw two more staring back at his, a brilliant blue. When he moved to get up, they moved away, and he saw that they belonged to a young girl. She was a hedgehog, perhaps 16, maybe a year younger, and her curiosity was quickly replaced with fear.

The light brown female backed away from him, and he sighed in relief when he was she was wearing clothes. Not much, just a ragged shirt and shorts that looked like they would fall off, but at least it was something.

"Who are you?" Shadow asked her. She curled up in a corner, terrified. "I'm not going to hurt you." The black hedgehog said, rolling his eyes. She still didn't say anything, but continued to stare at him. "What's your name?" He tried again.

This time, after a couple moments, she replied. "Sheeva. How long have you been here?"

It took him hours to get a decent explanation out of her, but at the end he realized if it hadn't been anyone else, he probably wouldn't have gotten any answers at all.

This place, was an underground laboratory, separate and secret from the government, though the scientist that ran it was fired by the military for inhumane expiraments. His name was Bujin, and he was a hedgehog, though raving mad with insanity. Sheeva had grown up here, knowing nothing of the outside world. No one had ever escaped, none had ever come close, and the scientist heard and saw all.

When Shadow asked her what kind of experiments he carried out, she didn't answer, and turned away, refusing to speak anymore. It was then that he heard Bujin's voice in his head again.

"You wonder do you? Well, well... She is in fact pregnant, with your offspring."

Shadow stopped attempting to question her, trying to decide if what he had just heard was indeed true or not. Sheeva recongnized his silence.

"He's told you yes..." The brown female said, still gazing away from him.

"Is it true? I don't remember ever..." Shadow started.

"Yes. You don't have to be awake for his experiments, though sometimes you feel them afterwards." She replied quietly.

The black hedgehog was quiet for a moment, then a question popped into his head. "Have you ever, even had a child before?" He asked, turning to face her.

She was stitting on the floor, and now that he moved closer, he saw she was trembling, and crying. Kneeling beside her, he put his arms around her, trying to give her some comfort.

So, this is what the scientist meant, he thought, well, he'll never touch my child! Sheeva pressed her face to his chest, wanting so much just to be unafraid.

She didn't know him, she had just met him, but she had no one else to trust. This girl is, very beautiful, if she were to be my mate, shadow wondered, but then shook it off. Sheeva would never want me, even if she felt forced into it by having my child, I couldn't make her love me, the thought as he held her. Her tears were soaking into his fur, and she was holding onto him tightly in fear.

A couple minutes later, he smelled the sickening scent again. "Don't worry, I'll get you out of this, somehow..." He whispered to sheeva, holding her until they both fell unconscious.

Weeks passed, and Shadow didn't see her again, spending hours in his tube. Though he knew shew was there, next to him, he could see her shape. But he couldn't make out whether she was growing from pregnancy or not, he knew Bujin could be lying, and making her believe it as well.

Then, one day, her thrashing caught his attention. She was flailing wildly in the tube, as if in extreme pain. Shadow stared, watching helplessly as she started to slow.

Is she dead, he wondered when she stopped. Still unable to see properly from the liquid in his prison, he mananged to make out another form coming in the room. It was too dark to see what this being was, but he had a feeling he knew.

Within a couple minutes the being had taken Sheeva from the tube and pushed her out on a moving table of some sort. 'Great, now I truly am alone.' Shadow thought with a sigh.

Even longer weeks went by, and the female hedgehog that had captured his heart did not return. Nor did the scientist. He wondered if Sheeva had just finally gone insane, and perhaps that was why he had taken her away. Or maybe he was experimenting on her, and the child now...

That thought made him shake with anger, and he would end up banging his head and fists against the glass to no avail. He couldn't get out, nor could he pull the needles or mask off, he needed those to live.

Bujin might have forgotten he was here, or even existed, and if that were the case, he would suffocate if he took off the mask, because he couldn't break the glass. Getting more anxious by the days, he began wondering if he should remeover the mask to drown himself on purpose, at least that would end the broing suffering life he now had.

The ebon hedgehog was just about to do so when the door to the room opened. He couldn't see who this was, but was able to tell it was NOT the scientist. Bujin always wore a white coat, that he could see throught the glass, but this creature did not.

It stood in front of his tube and seemed to be staring at him for a minute, then it went to the side and began doing something, though Shadow couldn't see what. He found out soon enough.

The liquid began draining, and his feet touched the floor of his prison. The galss slid down into the floor, and he ripped the mask and the tubes off, leaping out and tackling this new person.

"Hey! Ya gonna get meh all wet again! I ain't the Crazy-hog!" It shouted, struggling under him.

Shadow paused. The purple eyes glaring back at him were truthful, and they didn't bare an evil look. The black hedgehog slowly got off of him, and saw that this 'creature' was in fact another hedgehog. He was green, and abnormally furry all over.

"That's bettah, now think oh this, ya free now. Shocko hunh?! Sheeva said ya be down here, said get ya next. C'mon, I ain't got all day, Slow-Moe!" The green hedgehog turned, and with speed equal to his own, ran out of the room. Shadow stared. Whoever this guy was, he was certainly was sasssy.

Shadow followed, keeping up with the fellow hedgehog but being unable to pass him. They stopped at a door in the hallway. This building seemed like any other government complex, no special designs or anything.

The green hedgehog entered some numbers on a keypad and opened the door for him, then took off down the hall in another direction. Shadow stepped into the crowded room, surprised. If this was a mass breakout, then these people must be Bujin's other experiments.

There were all kinds of animals, echidnas, foxes, rabbits, birds, but most of all, hedgehogs. Bujin was insane; his favorite beings to manipulate and torture were of his own race. Everyone looked tired and some looked about the point of exhaustion, some still looked afraid, but most appeared relieved. He spotted Sheeva in a corner and slowly made his way over to her.

"Oh. Omar did find you. Everyone's staying here so we can count out how many of us there are." She said.

Shadow stared at her, then at the small bundle of blankets in her arms. The brown hedgehog noticed and held the wrapped infant closer, her own eyes filling with fear.

"I'm not going to take the child, I just wanted to... see... is all..." The black hedgehog told her.

She thought for a minute, then let him look. The little one was almost an exact clone of himself, with only a few differences; a scar over his left eyebrow, and purple eyes instead of red. He was twitching in response to being moved, but stayed asleep.

"How long did the beast have him" Shadow asked her. Sheeva glared at him.

"About two minutes before that green hedgehog you saw managed to break in and rescue us. And what did you meman by you wouldn't take him? You won't take responsibilty or antying, or you don't want a kid?" She started with anger.

"Why are you angry with me, I have done nothing, I meant that I wasn't going to take him from you like tha tmonster had. You... are in fact..." Shadow halted not sure if he should continue. Sheeva waited.

The male wasn't sure if he could tell her how he felt, how she made him feel so strangely, this love. He suddenly pulled her and the babe close to him, trembling as he kissed the girl full on the lips. She froze, and he put his arms around her to keep her from dropping the baby as she returned the kiss.

It was so powerful, their lips touching with so much passion. Shadow was shaking violently, he had never done anything like this before, he had never kissed anyone before. The female was likewise, and could barely contain her joy at such pleasure, to be wanted for love, not to be just some experiment.

They broke apart after a couple minutes, and the brown hedgehog let him hold them in his arms again, silent tears running down her cheeks.


	2. Chapter 2

They left the laboratory that day, all two hundred and seven of them. Shadow and Sheeva were not the only ones with a child, there were many more, though most of them did not form couples.

Nearly all of the animalsthat left that day were confused, and weren't sure of where to go, they had been trapped there for so long that thye couldn't remember where they had come from. But eventually, all of them went their separate ways, though some into groups.

Shadow did not see the strange green hedgehog that had freed him among the crowd. He supposed he had left already. There was a small gray fox with red tipped tails that from the moment they left the complex began following Shadow and Sheeva, though at a distance at first.

They were walking throught the woods deciding where to go when the black hedgehog decided he had had enough of the sneaky fox heding behind them. "Hey, Fox! If you're going to come with us, then why don't you just walk with us instead of acting like a thief or whatever?" He yelled. A couple seconds later the fox lost his footing and fell to the ground in front of them.

Shadow stared at the little one in surprise, he couldn't be no older then three years, and was so small. The fox stood in a crouched position and backed away fearfully.

"We won't hurt you, it's alright" Sheeva said, tyring to coax him closer. The gray fox appeared as if he were going to bolt, but then quivered as he carefully stepped up to them.

Sheeva handed the baby to Shadow, who stared at his child in surprise. He didn't know how to hold an infant, but he attempted to be as gentle as he could, acting like he was cradling a glass vase.

The brown female kept trying to talk to the little fox, but after a few mintues, it was apparent that he didn't speak at all, a mute, though he understood what they were saying to him.

Meanwhile, Shadow's son was waking up, and began squirming, moving his tiny hands back and forthl THe older hedgehog looked ot the infant's mother, confused, but she was still communicating with the gray fox.

The babe began to whimper, then Shadow had an idea, and pressed the child closer to his chest. The little one immediatly stopped struggling, and sighed as he snuggled his face against his father's warm chest fur. So that's what you wanted, Shadow wondered.

Sheeva tapped him on the shoulder to get his attention and he turned. "This little fox can't talk, but he's alone. He doesn't have anywhere else to go, so that's why he was following us, he though we looked nice." She told him.

The black hedgehog nodded and smiled, he hadn't felt this happy in a long time, he was holding a child that was his, an unexpected pleasure, he had found a beautiful mate, and a new friend in the small, innocent fox.

"That reminds me. Whatever happened to that beast of a scientist anyway?" He asked. The fox froze in fear, and Sheeva flinched.

"We... Don't know... He diappeared after that green hedgehog gave him a good throttling and started freeing people. I guess he just gave up and left." The brown female said quietly.

After a long silence, they started walking again. "Where are we going?" Sheeva asked him. "I don't know... Wait, yes I do. Most definitely you've never heard of space colorny ARK, but that's where I was 'born' and it's a safe place until we figure out what to do next." Shadow replied.

The ARK was no different from when he had visited it a couple years back, still running perfectly since his repairs he had applied to it. He turned all the systems back on, besides the life supposrt which was already running, and Sheeva and the small fox gasped as all the lights returned to the Control Bridge. They had never seen anything so big, except for Bujin's labs, and it was hard for them to believe that this place was not made for evil purposes.

It took the black hedgehog a while to convince them that this was not anything like the mad scientist's base, that in the past, it had only been meant for good, or until the professor had become insane and he had to shut the eclipse cannon down.

While the two hedgehogs talked about the future they could have, the gray fox they had decided to name 'Flick' kept playing with the gravity controls. They ignored the fact that at times they would be floating near the ceiling, and that he kept flapping his arms and zooming around like he was a brid of some sort.

Sheeva finally told her new mate that she was going to call their son 'Shade' after his father. This pleased him greatly, even more that she was letting him still hold the baby for the time they talked.

It was an hour later when Flick turned the gravity back on, and Sheeva nearly fell on her head, but Shadow landed on his feet with his sonic in his arms with no trouble.

Flick began to run in circles for no reason but to amuse himself, and Shade began crying. The female took him, and began to walk into another room. "He's hungry." She explained.

Shadow nodded, and decided to go look for some decent clothes for her and some shoes for Flick and himself. It didn't take him long, and the gray fox loved his new shoes and gloves, while Shadow found ones for himself that were identical to his old ones.

He found a white skirt and blue shirt that had bee Maria's when she had been much younger then at the time of her death.

It wasn't long before Sheeva was finished feeding Shade, and the ARK clock counted down til' the night. They were all tired, and found themselves suitable places to sleep.

The next day, they heard Flick knocking on the door of their room, waking them up. The two hedgehogs were curled up together, the female resting content in her mate's strong arms. Shadow yawned as Sheeva pulled out of his embrace to leave the bed.

She quickly pulled on her clothes and picked Shade up from his makeshift bed. Shadow rolled over and acted as if he were going back to sleep. He heard his mate and the fox 'communicating' again, in anxious tones. The gray fox kept making noises with his feet and hands. Sheeva came back over to him and put a hand on his arm.

"I think he's trying to tell us that Bujin put trackers in our bodies. He's frightened and thinks we should removes them before he finds us." She said.

The black hedgehog immediately got up, and put his shoes and gloves on. He then started leading them down the hallway.

"There's a medical machine we have for removing 'foreign' objects within the body, and detecting them as well. It should still work." Shadow muttered. Flick started trembling violently when they entered the medical bay, and Sheeva did as well. Nevertheless, they followed him anyway, and did as he said.

They destroyed the tracking chips once they had gotten them removed, then waited a couple days. There was no sign that Bujin had bothered to track them though, and besides the space traffic with the shuttles the humans normally carried out, all was quiet.

Finally, after four weeks, they decided to go back to the surface for a while. Though the ARK had everything they physically needed, Flick and Sheeva wanted to be around the true earth. They had never really had that chance, to meet humans and interact with society and such. Shadow had always felt as if he had to be alone, but maybe, just maybe, he thought, being around people wouldn't be so bad after all.

The black hedgehog used Chaos Control to teleport them down to the planet, though it was difficult for him to concentrate with Flick continuously poking him.

Upon arriving, Flick immediately took off without them, and even though the two called for him to come back, he ignored them, and ran away. Shadow made a move to follow him, but Sheeva grabbed his arm.

"If he wants to leave, let him. From the way he was acting before, I think he wants to be on his own for a while." She said.

"But he's so young!" Her mate started. The brown hedgehog shook her head again, still holding their own child.

"It's his decision. When we left the lab we all gained free will to go as we please. It's unwise of him, but it wouldn't be right to stop him. Besides, I think he's afraid to be around too many people, or to even trust them"

After only a few hours, Sheeva told Shadow that she didn't want to go back to the ARK. She enjoyed the endless skies and gigantic fields in the country, and all the stores in the big cities.

He understood, the ARK had a biosphere with plants and flowers in it, but it could never compare to the earth's number of them. And the colony certainlly didn't have any malls.

He was uncertain of where they should go at first, but then remembered an old house he had once slept in for a few days. It had running water and a bathroom, and that was pretty much all they needed. Neither of them ever found out where it came from or what it was doing there.

The days went on, for a month all seemed well and quiet. Shade was growing at a fast pace, like Shadow had when he was created. The genes caused him to age quickly to a certain degree, then his growth would permanently stop; though his son hadn't reached that level yet. At thirty days, it was as if he were a toddler, and he was already walking and saying words. Shadow marveled at this, the child acted so much like him.

On one of these near perfect days, the ebon hedgehog was sitting on the steps to the porch of 'their' house relaxing, when Sheeva asked him to go the store for her. Shadow got up reluctantly; he was enjoying the peacefulness of his new life and had wanted to think.

Nevertheless, he ran off, not even thinking that he might should not leave her alone. After all, Bujin had given up, and they had taken the trackers out, there was no chance of him finding them again, was there?

It was late and long after sunset when Shadow returned, he had been secretly searching for Flick whenever he went to the city, though Sheeva had told him to forget. He just couldn't leave the idea of it alone, the fact the tiny, mute fox could be lying in a cold gutter somewhere with no shelter.

It was raining and having not taken an umbrella or anything, the black hedgehog was soaked to the bone. He had forgotten to buy groceries completely, and realized this the moment he walked back into the house.

"Dammit." He muttered under his breath. He wondered why the lights were off, sure Shade would be sleeping but Sheeva usually waited for him.

Searching the entire house, he began to become worried.Where could they have possibly gone to on such a stormy night?

Knowing better then to just wait to see if they came back, he looked for clues. Nothing seemed out of place, until he saw that the back door was unlocked. They had been keeping it bolted because Shade had learned to open doors, and the lock was far above his reach.

Shadow walked out the door and froze. There, lying on the ground was a small scientific instrument. Picking it up, the hedgehog realized it was for injecting chips into animals. Bujin.

And the disgusting monster hadn't bothered to hide his tracks either; it looked as if some huge aircraft had landed in the yard, leaving deep indents on the ground.

Shadow sniffed, though it was raining and his senses were somewhat hindered, he was the ultimate lifefrom, and could easily smell the nirotic energy trail the machine had left in the air.

He followed the scent deep into the woods, and came upon a small base, not much of one though, apparently Bujin was just getting on his feet. There were no other capitves, and at first he didn't see a trace of Sheeva or his son. But as he destroyed the defenses and moved farther into it, he sensed them near.

The hedgehog halted at his next sight. His mate. She was there, lying on the ground in a small pool of blood, the scientist hadn't even bothered to cover here or give her a proper burial. Shadow stood rooted to the spot in which he was standing, unbelieving. How, could this be?

After several minutes, he still did not go to her, instead he turned a look of demonic rage coming to his eyes. They narrowed and he felt his heart rate increasing as the fury continued to build within him. His fur stood on end as he started snarling in anger.

Bujin must die, was the only thought that came to his mind. The power of the ultimate lifefrom's hatred was something that no one had ever really seen before, he had never snapped as far as this. This hedgehog turned demon sured foward in search of his prey, the one that slaughtered the helpless.

When Shadow woke from his blinding rage, he had returned to normal. He couldn't remember what he had done, only why. The last thing he could see in his mind was Sheeva dead, and everthing after that was nothing more then an empty space of time. But he knew what he had done.

The black hedgehog was standing in the pouring rain in the woods, holding his trembling child, and staring at the new body at his feet.

The crazed scientist was no more, his neck and back had both been broken, and his normally gray-green face was blue from being suffocated to death. His lab coat had turned red with blood, and Shadow's fur was matted with it as well from the scientist's gaping wounds.

Though when Shadow looked, Bujin had not gone without a struggle. There were various sophisticated weapons lying about, all broken and smashed to pieces, and injection needles.

He pulled out the last one sticking in his leg and recognized the label. A GUN issued tranquilizer, 20 ccs. But it hadn't knocked him out, nor had it slowed him down, until now.

He could feel a slight grogginess to his senses, but began to walk off anyway. Shade began to sneeze as he started back to the house, and he prayed that his son wouldn't catch pneumonia, he didn't want to lose him too and be alone again. 'Please don't get sick...' He thought desperately as he stumbled through the storm.


	3. Chapter 3

Shadow got home and Shade was quivering from the cold in his arms. The hedgehog could feel the tranquilizers beginning to take more of an effect on him, such an overdose he couldnl't withstand and knew he would be unconsious soon.

Still stumbling, he gathered up some blankets and collapsed on the couch in the main room, wrapping the babe and himself closely together for warmth. Shadow closed his eyes, unable to fight against the heavy sedative any longer.

When he awoke, the blck hedgehog could feel his son sleeping peacefully against his chest. Shadow sat up carefully, as not to wake him. Glancing at the clock he was shocked to see he had been sleeping for nearly seventeen hours straight. It surprised him that Shade hadn't fussed at him for it, but then again he had been through a lot.

Shadow stood, and staring out the window, saw that it was night once again. What could he possibly do now? With Sheeva gone, he didn't know how to take care of a child... True, he had helped his mate some during the short month they had been together, but nowhere near enough to do it on his own.

His son chose this time to open his eyes, and started crying softly. "Momma?" He asked in a small, frightened voice. Shadow sighed and shook his head.

"No. Momma's gone." He told the toddler as he walked outside.

"Come back?"

His father couldn't stop his own tears from falling as he began walking towards the city. "No, Shade. Momma's never coming back." He choked, and held the little one closer.

Shadow continued on through the city, wondering if he might find someone familiar from his past that could help him. Anyone would be welcome, even that blue faker, Sonic, if he knew how to take care of babies.

Shade was quiet; his father had bought him some milk and candy to make him happy and was walking steadily beside him holding his hand. Shadow had also bought a scarf for him, and shoes and gloves as well. Sheeva had always insisted on booties and uncomfortable looking outfits with frills, but Shade nearly always ripped them to shreds. These he would not.

As they passed an alleyway, the small hedgehog heard panting and whimpering coming from it. He looked up and saw that his father was staring at the stars and not paying attention, so he started to pull at his hand. "Somedy' dare'!" He said, pointing to the dark area as his father looked down.

They walked in, and to Shadow's surprise, there was the green hedgehog he had seen so long ago at the lab. He was lying on the ground, unconscious and covered in cuts and bruises. Four Gang-like animals were standing around him, fishing in the pockets of a black jacket that they had obviously taken from him.

A female thug that was also a hedgehog with several tattos started to pick the badly beaten person up, snickering. He opened his eyes and moaned in pain as she kicked his leg that Shadow now saw was in a cast.

"You're mine, sweetie-pie. We'll have lots of fun tonight." She cooed darkly at him.

"I don't like gettin' fucked by people I don't know, sorreh bitch." He muttered and smirked, then began yelping in pain as she kicked him again.

"I'll do whatever the hell I want with you, stupid little..." She turned and the gang noticed the two black hegdehogs. A large red male cat stepped up, still holding the jacket.

"If I were you I'd turn around and forget what I saw, cuz if you stay, you're gonna be the same as that little bastard." He said, flicking them the finger.

The other two that had remained silent saw the look that came to Shadow's eyes, and started backing away. They were small, and the tall, ebon hedgehog couldn't see them in the darkness very well as they leapt into some trash cans to hide.

"Hunh, Lil' wusses." The cat said, turning his head to look at them.

It was his first, and last mistake of that day, as Shadow reached up behind him and squeezed a pressure point in the red gangster's neck. He crumpled to the ground, out cold.

"So, you wanna fight hunh?" I wonder what you'll be like in bed after I beat you to a pulp! Scud, Slip, get out here right now and help me!" The hedgehog snickered as she dropped the green one and brought her fists up to fight.

The two creatures that were hiding in the trashcans peeked out, but didn't moved otherwise. They knew far better then to pick a fight with someone that had the light of justice in their eyes.

"What?! Damn you filthy little turnpikes, you're worthless!" The female charged at Shadow, who swiftly turned to the side and grabbed her by the neck as she passed by. LIfting her up, he squeezed her throat tightly, causing her to choke and gag.

"Listen here. I should give you the same treatment you were giving to your victim, in which I'm sure you were going to kill him after you were done with him, but you're lucky I give second chances. Though you don't deserve one." He said, hitting her head against the wall to knock her out. She fell beside the cat, and the fox and raccoon immediately hopped out of the trash cans and backed away.

"Hey, come out. Now, or I'll fetch you myself." Shadow told them in a neutral tone, not sure what their status was in this attack. They stepped up, and he stared in disbelief. "Flick?! How did you get mixed up in all this?"

The young raccoon named Chip explained what Flick couldn't because of his muteness. Apparently the fox and raccoon had become friends shortly after flick had ran off from the hedgehog, and then the two gan-member-like animals had found them, forcing them to follow them everywhere and carry things.

They were scapegoats, if one of their crimes went wrong, the two would run off and leave them to be blamed for it. Though something like that hadn't happened yet, the two had heard their captors plotting.

"You two can stay with me, though I don't know where I'm going right now. I have no idea what to do now..." He muttered. Looking to his side for Shade, he saw his son had gone over to the green hedgehog. The injured animal had mananged to get into a sitting position leaning against the alley wall, and was breathing heavily. He looked up at Shadow as the ebon hegehog stood over him.

"Eh, if I hadn't busted meh leg a while back, I would have kicked their sorreh butts." He said weakly, almost toppling over before Shade pushed him back up. "Thanks. Hey, last time I saw ya, ya were jus' lil' bitty!" With that, the green hedgehog slippded into unconsciousness.

Shadow thought for a minute, then got the leather jacket from under the red cat, and carefully picked up the injured creature. He had 'recovered' his emerald from the museum upon returning to the city, and now used Chaos Control to teleport them all to the ARK.

Shadow didn't know much about broken legs, as the thugs had busted the cast partially off, but read what the computer had to say about it and put a new one on his strange, furry guest. It took a while to clean him up though, and Shadow decided to leave him in the medical bay to rest for a while before waking him for questioning.

The young animal was strange for his species, but then again he had come from a lab. He was heavily furred, and along with the black jacket, he wore boots and had piercings on his face, eyebrows, ears, and quills.

He watched Shade play with his new friends for a while, then fell to sleep himself after a few hours. It was strange, this dream he had. It had gigantic lizards flying around, and all of them were in it, including some others he had never seen before. The strange visions didn't last long, and the backgrounds and motions were blurred heavily; he could barely see anything. Walking with a start to see Shade poking him, he blinked it off.

"Yes?" He asked.

"Gweens 'wake. Wants you." The toddler said in a broken sentence, the sped off without another word towards the medical bay.

When Shadow walked into the room he had left the injured hedgehog in, all he could do was stare for a moment. The furry male was spray painting the cast on his leg black, and looked bored. He glanced up at the black one.

"Heya. Thanks for rescuin' meh, meh name's Omar. Ya Shadow right? Is Sheeva 'round?" He asked. Shadow shook his head, a sassy one this was, he could tell by the voice.

After explaining everything to Omar, the black hedgehog asked him what he was doing with a broken leg. "Oh that thing. Kinda longo sotry but it involves meh slippin' on a banana peel for a talent act. Kinda landed the wrong way, if ya know what I mean." He muttered. He shook his quills and scratched between them, sighing.

"So, ya given them a place ta stay, that's nice o' yah. Ah, I don' mean ta be imposin' but, I kinda got nowhere ta go either..." Shadow smiled. He had found someone to help him.

"Oh, not at all, I was looking for someone who would help me with them." The ebon nodded little ones playing on the floor.

"Oh, I see. I dunno much either, but I'll give it a shot. Are whe stayin' here, or ya got somewhere else in mind?" Omar asked.

They left the ARK and returned to the house that Shadow and Sheeva had been using, and Omar laughed. "This gonna be real interestin', ya know?" He said as he inspected the slightly run down place. The three little ones played outside for a time while the green hedgehog showed Shadow how to fix the surge box.

"Yep, now weh got lights. Much better. That storm ya mentioned must have knocked em' out." Omar said.

Chip chose this time to walk up to them and announce he was leaving. "I gotsa family. Those guys stoled me. I know how to get back those." Shadow nodded as the raccoon left, but was happy that Flick chose to stay rather then follow his friend off into the city again. The fox looked sad but knew better then to leave again; he wanted to stay where it was safe.

A couple days later, Shadow was walking along the sidewalk in the city looking for a pizza shop, when he ran across Tails. The boy fox wasn't so young anmore, nearly fourteen, and was working for NASA. They talked for a couple minutes, then the black hedgehog turned to go on his way. Tails stopped him.

"Hey, Shadow, you aren't living nearby, are you?" He asked. The hedgehog stared for a second, then blinked. 'Great, here come the questions. Where do you live, can I come over, can I see your house, what have you been doing all this time, why haven't you been talking to any of us, what's going on with you?" He thought. However the fox surprised him.

"I was just wondering if you would like to come over or something, you must be lonely all by yourself." Tails said.

"I'm not alone anymore. I have a lot to do, but you are interested, you can come see what I mean." The ebon hedgehog told him and started walking away again. Pausing for a moment, the two-tailed fox followed him.

"Wow. How can four people live in such a small house? I mean, it's a really nice house though..." Tails muttered when he saw their residence.

"Bein' on the outskirts of town, weh really don' attract much attention. But that don' mean it ain't hard." Omar told him when Shadow frowned about the fox's comment.

"Hey, don't play with that it's dangerous!" The fox yelled at Flick, who had taken the power core out of a strange instrument he had brought with him.

"Oh let em'. He takes the TV apart all the time. Ya know?" The green hedgehog said, giving the machine back to the little one.

"He does?!" Tails asked in surprise.

"Yes, he does." "Yesee does." Shade mimicked his father with a childish smirk.

Tails continued to come over, mostly to see Flick. Soon the gray fox was taking more apart then just the TV. Shadow awoke one morning the day after the orange fox had visited, and found him taking apart the refridgerator. The next time, it was the oven, and after that, the microwave.

Omar, who shared the living room as a sleeping area with the fox at night, told Shadow that Flick had been getting up early every morning to do these things. Tails returned again, and this time, the black hedgehog asked him to put a stop to this.

"Stop Flick from taking apart stuff?! I won't ask him to do that, in fact, I was going to see if he wanted to stay with me from now on. Seeing how he likes these things, and it's kind of..." The older fox glanced around the, seeing parts of things lying all over in a mess. Shade started to com intot he room, now the age of 'three' and tripped over some of the junk.

"Crappit! How am I supposed to run?!" He screamed, then started throwing a tantrum on the floor. His father motioned for Tails to follow him, as they couldn't talk over the little hedgehog's shouting.

They walked into the front yard, which was just beginning to become messy with machinery, to find Flick inspecting the toaster. Shadow grabbed it from him before more harm could be done.

"This is how he learns, Shadow. He may not understand how to put it back together yet, but he will soon, once he looks at the parts enough." Tails told him with a smile. The hedgehog gave the toaster bck, and the little fox pulled a screwdriver out and pried one of the sides off.

And so Flick went to live with Tails, and as Shadow soon found out, they didn't come to visit often, as they lived far away. The only reason the two-tailed fox had kept coming was because he wanted the gray fox to be happy, and saw potential in him.

The three hedgehogs were fine with this though, they didn't have to wake up to the bathtub pipes exploding, and yet they did miss the small mute. After a year, they stopped coming at all, and they wondered what had become of them.

Shade continued to grow quickly, and within a few years had reached full height and stopped aging. But like most grown creatures, he hardly remembered his early childhood, and couldn't remember what his mother even looked like. He could only rely on what his father told him.

The black hedgehog was nearly a clone to his father, so much like him, yet he had his views, and they shared only a few differences.


	4. Chapter 4

So many years pass, and when the next portal opens, a strange creature that shouldn't exist comes to life, brings forth the darkness, but has yet to be discovered... New friends and foes appear, but the product of the future is still unknown. What is this race, that has the darkness and evil bred into their hearts?

Continue on throught the years, and a new ultimate lifeform appears, and Shadow discovered her... But like him, her purpose is unknown...

The purple hedge-fox leapt clumsily aside, still feeling the heat wave from the Chaos Blast as she dodged it. She landed in the next room, and quickly found the controls, sealing the door shut. She stood there, trembling, trying to decide what to do before the black hedgehog broke through the steel barrier.

She was terrified, for she was Foxbeast, sister of Shadow, the one who was trying to kill her now. She had lived out her life unaware of this until recently when he found her, accusing her of being the reason for Maria's death. Fleeing him, she had come to the ARK for answers.

Opening her eyes to a loud bang, she saw a large dent in the door. It was reinforced so that even Shadow would have a difficult time with it, but she new that he would break in soon.

Turning, she saw three doors, and went through the second one. It closed automatically behind her, and the hedge-fox gasped at the room she had entered now. It was a data entry room, but looked like a private office.

Listening with an ear to the door, she heard her brother go through the first door. Sighing, she slid into the chair at the desk, and began typing at the computer. Maybe this would give her some answers. There was a picture of a blonde girl and an elder man on the desk, a professor?

She ignored it, then adjusted her black halter-top a bit and went back to typing. A screen came up, and Foxbeast was shocked at what she found.

She was able to read for only a minute, and turned back as the door caved in. An arm curled around the fox creature's neck and another around her waist to keep her from escaping. Foxbeast struggled, but was unable to break his hold as he started suffocating her. He isn't going to let me live, he's killing me, she thought as her eyesight began to blur and go black.

"Mercy... Please!" She gasped just before she went unconscious. Shadow kept his grip on her, trying to push her lst words out of his mind. He turned to the computer screen, curious about what she had been looking at.

"Project Foxbeast... With the blood of the alien calling himself Black Doom... My daughter... What?!" The black hedgehog glanced at the dying fox in his graps, then back to the screen one more time, then dropped her.

Kneeling down next to her as she gasped for breath, he watched as she backed away in fear. Foxbeast's eyes widening in terror as he walked closer, he still couldn't decide whether to kill her or not. She froze, closing her eyes and starting to cry as he put a hand around her neck and pulled her up to face hiim.

"So tell me, in this file that I seemed to have missed, the Professor cares deeply about you, how is it that you ran from him? why did you leave, abandon him and Maria, for your own selfish desires?!" He asked harshly, squeezing her throat until she started to answer.

"I didn't... I didn't know... Why... Please... Maria...!" She gasped, he was tightening his fingers with every word she managed to say. They loosened however, at the last. The ebon hedgehog let go, and she fell facedown on his shoes, choking and trembling. He kicked her off and walked to the door, sealing it shut and destroying the controls.

Shadow went back to the computer, glaring at her. "This shall determine your fate, we shall see whether you are guilty or not."

As Shadow read the data, Foxbeast was rubbing her neck and wondering if she was going to feel his fingers there again. "I didn't know why he made me you know." She tried. He ignored her, not so much as twitching an ear. "He never told me. I left because..." The black hedgehog turned to the hedge-fox with a dark look in his eyes.

"If you don't shut up, I won't wait to finish reading this to kill you!" He said, silencing her again.

I thought Shadow was a kind-hearted being from what I heard, she wondered, I guess that proves you can never believe what you hear.

She stood up, waiting a second to see if he cared. Nothing. Foxbeast walked over to the damaged door. Still nothing. Then, she took out the Chaos Emeral she had been hiding in her pocket. I hope this works, she thought. Using Chaos Control, she teleported out to the hallway. Pressing her ear to the door, silence. He hadn't realized it. The hedge-fox quickly ran for it, down the hall and towards the shuttle bay.

Shadow finally finished reading the script on the computer, and decided to question her one more time to be sure of his decision. Turning, he saw that she had disappeared. Confused, he checked the controls to the door, they were still broken. The only way she could have escaped, was Chaos Control, he realized, she has an emerald. Using Chaos Blast, he destroyed the door, and raced out to find her.

The fox by now had made it down to the earth, and was trying to decide where the last place the hedgehog would look for her was. She decided on Central City, after all, it was filled with so many people, even if he did manage to spot her here he would easily lose sight of her again. What Foxbeast didn't know, was that he had already found her, and was watching her every movement.

By the end of the day, she still had not found a place to live, and decided that there ws no other choice. The black hedgehog kept his eyes on her as she walked downtown into the slums of the city, and entered a club.

He followed, and even though he kept his distance, he never lost her. She seemed to be talking to the manager, who laughed darkly at her.

"Hey, this hot little fox doesn't have anywhere to stay and wants a job serving tables! I have a better idea, how would one of you boys like to take her home tonight?! " He shouted to the crowd.

Instantly the hedge-fox began to back away, there were quite a few males staring in her direction. She went to head for the door to find one behind her, then in front and to her sides, she couldn't get away.

"Heya, I got a big place, it's real nice!"

"Oh you are pretty..." They started.

The purple fox reached into her pocket, and found it empty, the fear in her eyes grew.

Shadow blinked, what would she do if she didn't have this, he thought. He had stolen the emerald out of her pocket when she had been pushing through the place to get to the manager. Foxbeast began whimpering, the different animals coming even closer and starting to touch her. Shadow suddenly did a double take as another hedgehog stepped up.

"Just relax..." He whispered gently in her ear as he pulled her close to his body and started kissing her neck. Foxbeast trembled for a moment, then embraced the furry green hedgehog back.

The other males groaned in disappointment and started walking away as she appeared to enjoy his sensual touching, her hands slipping around his waist under his leather jacket. After a minute, he stopped, and lead her out of the building.

She smiled, this one was different. He hadn't really been defiling her, in fact, the only thing that she had felt was his hands on her shoulders and warm breath on her face when he had muttered, "Chaos Illusion." Her new friend pulled out a Chaos Emeral and spun it on the tip of his finger.

"I only come for the food really, the girls, the dancin', it's only fund ta watch sometimes. Didn't like the way they was lookin' at ya." He said, scratching his quills.

"Thank you, I didn't like it either." She said gratefully.

"Ya really should be more careful at who ya askin' for a job." The green hedgehog told her.

The hedge-fox sat down on the ground and began to cry silently. Now she really had no where to go, and she was vulnerable without her emerald for protection. Her strange friend sat down next to her.

"Hey, now. If ya give up hope then what's the point in livin'? Keep ya chin up, girl. Now, if ya really don't have anywheres ta stay..." She looked up at him, what was he saying?

"Then I guess ya can stay at my place. If ya want ta, and if ya can stand two other guy hedgies." Foxbeast stared into his lavender eyes, trying to detect any untruth in them, but finding none.

"I...I... You wouldn't hurt me or anything?" She asked nervously, she had met him in a club after all.

"Naw. I ain't that kind o' guy, I get to know a girl first. And the other two, they mostly stay out and about, hell, neither of them have ever been to a club, and they certainly don't know I've been goin'. I'm Omar by the way." He reassured her, holding out his hand to her. Foxbeast thought for a minute, then stood taking the offer.

"I'm Foxbeast, but people call me Foxy." She said with a smile as she started following him.

Shadow watched them walk on, shocked again. Omar ws going to bring her home, right to him. He raced ahead to get there before them, and as he walked up the porch steps, he wondered why Omar never did tell him about his going to clubs.

"Ya like piercin' eh?" Foxy looked to the green hedgehog. "Hunh?" She asked, confused.

"Ya ears. Ya got one of em' in there." He said, motioning to her right ear. The purple hedge-fox laughed, he was talking about earrings?

"Yeah. Hey, so do you." She said, noticing his own facial piercings, on his eyebrows, ears, and quills. He stuck his tongue out at her showing off a small gold stud in it.

"How do you eat with that in?" Foxy asked him.

They were coming up to a small house in the woods, it had taken them a long while to walk to it. "I don't, I take it out before I eat. Put it back in when I'm done. Think I'm gonna stop wearin' it all together though. In and out all the time is gettin' annoyin'." He said with a smile as he opened the door for her.

She stepped in and froze. Shadow was sitting on the couch in the front room, staring directly at her. Omar came in and blew a raspberry at him.

"Ya back already, Cool Black? Jeez, thought four days ta get us pizza was enough. We had ta go out ta eat ourselves ya were takin' so long. Next time I'm askin' Shade, not ya." The green hedgehog said as he started to pull the hedge-fox into another room.

"She isn't leaving the room just yet, Omar." Shadow said as he stood up. Omar's smile fell when he saw his new friend trembling in terror and Shadow's serious look.

"Hunh?" He muttered, confused.

"I wanted to apologize. I didn't realize the professor had given you a memory wipe after sending you to the earth or that he kept your purpose a secret." The black hedgehog told her before he left the house. The door slammed behind him, and Omar let out a low whistle.

"Damn, he's pissed. Oh well. I didn't know ya knew him. Did ya already meet Shade too?" He asked.

"Who?" Foxy asked, still quivering.

After telling Shade about his father being angry, in which the nearly identical hedgehog rolled his eyes and snorted, Omar took Foxy to a bedroom. "Now, usually I sleep in here, Shade shares a room with Shadow, though he sleeps on the couch, but ya can have it for a while."

The green hedgehog turned and left her alone. Moving to the window, she saw him lay down outside in the grass. He's sleeping outside so that I can have a bed, she wondered.

Foxbeast turned off her lights and was about to go to sleep when she noticed Shadow approaching Omar. She could hardly see them it was so dark out, but the moonlight was enough.

The hedge-fox pushed the window up just enough so that she could hear them speaking.

"Why ya actin' so weird with that girl? And what was that apology for anyway?" The green hedgehog asked him carefully.

"She's my sister. She was the first experiment, though by maturity and mental age I'm her elder. I nearly killed her a couple days ago, when I should have done research first. And that's more then you need to know." The ebon one said, going past him and into the house.

Foxbeast leapt into the bed and pulled the covers up to her chin, pretending to be asleep in case he came into the room. But he didn't. Instead she heard him flop onto the couch again, sighing.

"Why do I always judge so quickly...? It is tru she didn't do anything wrong. In my promise to Maria, she had meant it to include her, and so it will." She heard him say to himself. Does that mean he cares about me, Foxy wondered in surprise.

When she awoke the next day, she went into the living room. Shadow was just leaving, and didn't look at her, nor did he say goodbye. He just left, when he knew she was there. She sat on the couch, beginning to cry. Omar came into the room and sat next to her.

"Shadow still won't even look at me." She said softly.

"Well, I think he cares about ya, but after almost killin' ya, he's ashamed o' himself." Omar sighed.

Foxbeast sat up, looking at him. "I just want him to be nice to me... Shade is, and so are you. But he won't even say a word to me."

Omar could tell she was about ready to cry, and decided that he would express his feelings to her. She was close to him, so close. He put a hand gently to her face and she leaned against it as he moved nearer. The hedge-fox was so beautiful to him, and soft. The green hedgehog ever so slowly pressed his lips to hers, giving her the softest and most tender kiss he could.

Foxy trembled and closed her eyes, then gave it back to him. After a couple minutes he backed away, giving her a small smile. "He will in time." He said.

She began crying again, and rested her head against his chest as she sobbed. The green hedgehog shushed her and held her close, trying to give her comfort.


	5. Chapter 5

The next day, Omar took Foxbeast into the city with him, to help her find a job. With his influence, smooth talking, and determination to help, it didn't take them long.

They finally found her one at a book store, and he also helped her lease an apartment as well. It wasn't the fact that she didn't like staying with them, it was that she couldn't stand the way her brother acted towards her.

When she had left that morning and said goodbye, he hadn't done anything to recognize her words, just like the day before. It had hurt her, and when they had left she had told the green hedgehog. It was he who suggested she get a place of her own, and that it might make him realize how she felt.

Omar paid for her deposit, and bought her some furniture. When Foxbeast asked him where all this money was coming from, he just smirked and laughed. They arranged everything together, then had lunch.

Finally, at the end of the day when Omar went to leave, they stood in the doorway and began kissing again.

She trembled violently as he put his arms around her and held her close. Foxy could feel his heart beating against hers, and wondered at all the strange hedgehog had done for her. Feeling the tip of his tongue against her lips, she opened her mouth and he slid it inside. He purred softly as their french kiss continued, and she discovered that he had taken his tongue piercing out. His love was so passionate.

After a couple minutes more, Omar slowly pulled away, and with a wink sped off out of sight.

Shadow watched as Omar came back, alone. "Where is she?" He asked.

"Hunh?" The green hedgehog said, looking up.

"Don't act stupid. You know what I mean. Where's Foxbeast?" The ebon demanded again. Omar thought for a moment, then shook his head.

"She's livin' in the city now. After the way ya acted this mornin' I think she was afraid ta come back." He said as he started to walk out of the room. Shadow grabbed the neck of his friend's jacket and pulled him close.

"You helped her leave, didn't you? She doesn't have any money, you wen into your savings, right? She's not safe alone!" He yelled at him.

"Yeah, well least I'm showin' her I care! She feels like ya hate her, now let go a me!" Shadow released him, and the slightly smaller hedgehog readjusted his jacket before going to his room.

Shade didn't move from his spot on the couch as his father stormed out of the house, knowing exactly what would happen all would be fine, his father wasn't a psycho after all. He had found his 'aunt' kind to him, and he liked her. Surely Shadow would reconcile with her.

When Shadow left, Omar knew better then to follow him. He knew that the black hedgehog wouldn't physically harm the little hedge-fox, but was afraid of what he would say.

The green hedgehog laid down on his bed, understanding that he would have to wait it out. From the moment he had seen Foxy he had loved her, she was beautiful to him, so caring. But she was so afraid, so easily frightened, she needed someone to protect her, as powerful as she was. The kisses they had shared, they still had his mind reeling. He felt as if she were holding him captive with her love.

The black hedgehog didn't know where to look of course, but scoured the city until he saw his sister walking down a back street.

At first, he kept himself hidden, she was carrying groceries and struggling with their weight. As he watched, she lost her balance and began to drop them.

Shadow rushed up and caught the bags, lifting them easily. Foxbeast stared at him beginning to quiver when he met her eyes.

"Tell me where you're staying and I'll drop them off." He said, starting to walk off without her. She didn't say anything for a moment. "Or you can just show me, it's not like I have anything better to do." Shadow suddenly put the groceries down and hugged her close, he knew he had hurt her again by being so blunt.

"I'm sorry. I'm just not used to showing my emotions, I do care about you. I shouldn't have ever tried to harm you, in any way. From now on, I'll make sure you're safe, always." The purple hedge-fox hugged him back, sobbing in his arms.

"I know..." She said quietly, after she had calmed down. Shadow let go of her, then picked her bags back up.

"Now, where do you live?" He asked. She sniffed, then led him onward.

It took Foxy hours to convince her brother that she would be alright, living alone. She also had to ask him not to watch her all the time, had to make him swear to it. The hedge-fox wanted to spend more time with Omar, but of course didn't tell Shadow that.

A week went by, with Omar coming over nearly every other day, then it began with every singe day. They were becoming closer and closer, doing so much together, but the green hedgehog still hadn't dared to ask her yet, even after months had rolled by. I

It was also getting difficult to keep their relationship a secret from her brother, as he would sometimes randomly appear on her doorstep to check on her.


	6. Chapter 6

Omar stood there still watching the sunset as Shadow walked up to him. "You watch the sunset even more then I do, what are you doing?" He asked.

The green hedgehog was quiet for a moment, then closed his eyes. "Just thinkn' 'bout meh girl" He said, shaking his quills a bit. The black hedgehog rolled his eyes, then looked at him questioningly.

"So, you finally found one you like, hm?"He asked. Omar opened his eyes for a moment, then closed them again.

"She's amazin'... She asked meh over fa dinneh tonight. But..." He trailed off, smiling.

"I see. Well, have fun, Shade and I are going out tonight, so we may not be here if you come back." Shadow walked off and Omar smirked.

'If I come back, reah funneh.' The green hedgehog thought before speeding of towards the city.

Omar knocked on the door of the small apartment and waited. He knew he was going out with the black hedgehog's sister. He had been friends with the little hedge-fox for quite a while, and had always seen her as beautiful. From the moment they had met, he had fallen in love with her. She opened the door and handed her some flowers, purple were her favorite.

"Heya, Foxy! What's it tonight, eh?" Shadow hadn't even known that he'd been coming here almost every day, though he never stayed overnight. Yet. This night was different though. He'd seen it in her eyes the last time, she had wanted him to stay, but hadn't said anything, but maybe tonight she would.

It was about half and hour later after dinner that they were sitting on the couch together, kissing and necking when Omar wondered if she was ever going to ask. She waited a long time, letting him make-out with her for a while before pulling away for a break.

"I love ya so much." He whispered in her ear as she snuggled against his chest. The green hedgehog sighed happily and smirked playfully at her.

"You know..."

Omar tilted his head, listening intently, was this what he was waiting for?

"You don't HAVE to leave... ever..." She said, looking into his eyes hopefully.

"I kinda figured dat. If you like, I won't." They embraced again, the night going on and on for them.

Shadow shook his head, finally starting to worry a bit. Omar had never left THIS long before. He had gone away for a couple days at the most before, but to be gone for weeks on end...

The black hedgehog thought back to when he had first met the green hedgehog, the poor guy was being mugged, unable to defend himself for a broken leg. However, Omar would have beaten the pulp out of them, and he proved it later when they tried it again. He has seen him briefly before in a laboratory, but they hadn't really talked much.

"I say we wait one more day. If he doesn't come buy then, we go looking. Who knows, maybe he really likes this girl..." Shade said. His father rolled his eyes at this, but agreed.

That night, when Shadow and his son were about to go inside for the night, they heard a familiar voice.

"Heya, Cool Blacks, wassup?" They turned, and there was Omar, with Foxy standing beside him, in her usual black shirt and jeans. She didn't say anything, but smiled when Shadow noticed the ring on her finger.

"And you never told me about this because...?!" Her brother started, glaring at the green hedgehog.

"I... Uh... Uh..." The purple hedge-fox stepped in for her stuttering lover, giving them a small smile.

"We just told you about it, didn't we?" She said. Shadow slapped his own face in irritation, this was so like her.

"How far are you guys anyway?" Shade asked, not in the slightest bit disturbed, as he already had had a suspicion about this.

"We're married and stuff, eh. Had it all quiet yeah. I just came ta get meh stuff, I'm stayin' with her now." Omar said, relieved to see that Shadow was starting to relax.

"Yes, I see. Well, at least I don't have to worry about some crazy person attacking her, because I know you'll protect her." Shadow muttered. Omar grinned at this, knowing that all was well between them.

TWO WEEKS LATER

Shadow hadn't seen much of Omar or his sister since he had found out about them getting married, but it didn't worry him. He knew full well that they were obsessed with each other and in love, but soon they would settle down.

The black hedgehog didn't trust anyone else to have his sister, because he had known Omar for years, and the fellow hedgehog was a loving person, no matter how carefree, clumsy, and idiotic he seemed. He knew he would love and be be careful with her. Even when sometimes he thought about whe he could be doing to her, he shook it off. It was her choice, and if something was wrong she would tell him, wouldn't she?

TWO YEARS LATER

Shadow thought about his sister and Omr a lot, but was so busy dealing with Shade, that he didn't have time to look for them. His son, nearly identical to him in every way, was often running off and disappearing, acting strangely upn return and smiling a lot. He would leave without saying anything and refuse to comment on where he'd been when he returned.

His father was worried about this, and even though he hadn't seen Foxy for nearly two years, he still trusted Omar to take care of her. The black hedgehog would wonder sometimes however, if he had made the wrong decision oin trusting the green hedgehog, why had they been gone so long without contact?

Shadow couldn't follow Shade, as his conniving son, was using Chaos Control to leave undetected. At first, the yound hedgehog was gone a couple hours, then it grew to days, then finally weeks. This time it had nearly been a month, and Shadow knew that this either had to stop, or he had to know what was going on.

Shadow was walking along the sidewalk when he halted. There in front of him, was a small green hegehog wearing a black jacket, and an earring. The little creature was staring into a shop window and watching one of the TVs on display. It noticed Shadow standing there and turned to him, sneering.

"Whaddya lookin' at?!" It growled in a small, fierce voice. The older hedgehog blinked, now that the little one was facing him, he noticed that this 'hedgehog', had whiskers, big ears, and a small fox tail.

"Doncha think I ain't noticin' that! Ya stupid purebloods always stare!" It turned and took off with speed that shocked him. He followed, and hid behind a corner when the little one stopped to see if he was being chased.

"Hunh, nobody can keep up with meh, 'specially not pure bloods... Dey always stare..." Shadow followed the small boy, his curiosity growing,

The little hedge-fox waltzed down the block, then stopped to make sure no one was looking before turning down an alleyway. It was dark and dirty, full of garbage and it smelled, but the little creature didn't seem to care.

Shadow watched as he started to climbe up a fire escape, going up only one level before stopping and knocking on a cracked window. It opened and a stick shot out, poking him on his nose.

"Stoppit, I ain't no robber! Let meh in already!" He said, pushing it away and climbing inside, closing the window behind him.

The black hedgehog zipped up and listened in, being careful not to stand in front of the window though he doubted they could see anything though it as mucky as it was. He could just barely make out what was being said, the green hedge-fox was talking to someone.

"Nothin's happenin', I guess dat's good, if they haven't found 'em yet." He was saying.

"I wish Mamma and Poppa would come back, where'd they go?" Said another, more girlish voice. There was a silence, then the sound of crying.

"Is' okay, they'll come back. And when dey do, we'll all live in dat big place dey was talkin' 'bout, where dere ain't nobody to make fun of us."

"Someone talked to you, didn't they? Someone knows about us?!"

"No! Well, I did see somebody, but is' okay, I ran 'way. 'Sides, I can't hide from everbody, can I?"

Shadow turned and grabbed the window, forcing it open and sending sparks flying. 'Controlled by a machine...?' He wondered as he started in. The hedgehog instantly tripped when he stepped on the floor, or what he thought was a floor.

Recovering quickly, he stood and snatched the stick, which had been swinging at his head. Holding hit firmly he saw to his shock who was holding it. It was a small girl, she was strapped into a wheel chair, and her appearance was nearly the same as the green hedge-fox's, except her fur was purple.

"Leave meh sis' alone, ya big bully!" Shadow turned and stepped back as a small fist came at him, then picked up the boy by the back of his jacket.

The black hedgehog frowned at them curiously, finally getting a good look at them and the room now that neither of them were really moving.

It was as if the entire building had been turned into a mechanical maze, hundreds of wires everywhere, various elevators, and now he could see that this was the only window unblocked the heavy metal plating that covered all the walls and ceiling as well. There weren't even proper floors, in fact, the area he was on now was the only place that was big enough to put a table, and the rest was filled with catwalks and thick, rounded bars.

"Argh!! Put meh down, ya big ugly...!" Shadow glared at the small creature he was holding, it was still attempting to attack him. The other one in the wheel chair had let go of the stick and was just watching, her eyes filled with fear. The green one kept yelling horribly nasty names at him, something that shocked the black hedgehog, one this little having such a vulgar tongue and immense vocabulary, even though he pronounced the words a bit strangely.

"Be quiet, and stop that filthy mouth of yours for a minute!" Shadow said, giving him a rough, one handed shake. The little one growled at him, but was silent otherwise.

"Now, I'm going to put you down, and you aren't going to run away, because I can catch you, and I WILL catch you. I'm the fastest being on this planet." The lavender eyes stared at him angrily, but the hedge-fox didn't run when he was set down.

"Now, who are you two?" He asked them both. The hedgehog had to give them hard stares before they would answer.

"I'm Jazz, and dat's Julie, now get out o' here, before I tell...!"

"I'm not an idiot, you two are alone here, it's obvious. But that's not why I followed you, you're appearance interests me..." Shadow interrupted him.

Jazz snorted and flicked his green ears. "Heh, if you're with the GOV den why dincha just say so, though I thought Mom and Dad had beaten ya'll bad enough so dat ya had learned ya lesson! Humans are rubbin' off on some animals I guess..." He muttered, though Shadow detected a faint hint of fear in the the young one's voice. Julie now looked absolutely terrified, holding her head and rocking back and forth in her chair, whimpering.

"I'm not with the government, not anymore at least. And I don't intend you any harm." Jazz looked away when he said this and sat down on the 'floor' covering his eyes.

"That's what the last one said... Just take us already, we know what you want us for."

Shadow felt a wave of pity, the little creature had finally lost his brave spirit, and seemingly his hope for some reason. He was talking normally, without the sassy gaps in his speech, and Shadow could see him trembling visibly.

"They hurt you, didn't they, the humans?" The black hedgehog asked. Neither of the young ones said anything. Shadow sighed sadly. "I'm not with them. If anything, they did the same to me. I only cam because you look like some I used to know..."

Jazz looked up, still frightened but now wondering if this stranger had somehow seen his parents.

It took Shadow a while to calm them both down, and even then they were still afraid. He couldn't get Julie to say anything, and her brother glared at him when he tried. It turned out that the two where obviously hedge-foxes, and that they were 'two' years old, or they said they were.

Shadow had now doubts now, part of his and Foxbeast's line's genetic coding was the age leap, where one year could pass as three or four, but after a certain amount of time, the person no longer aged. And they were part fox, his sister, and hedgehog, Omar.

Their parents had put them here in this building and told them to stay safe and quiet for a while, leaving for a reason known only to themselves two months ago. Back then it had been a normal, abandoned building, but the two had occupied themselves by building inside of it, or more Julie told Jazz where to put things.

Shadow didn't ask them about what they had said before, he knew his own conclusion of them being caught by the government for experimentation was definately true, with their hostility towards strangers and humans. They had been even more afraid because this time their parents wouldn't have been able to save them.

After Jazz smart-mouthed him a bit more, though he kept his language far more clean and didn't say anything about pure-bloods, he decided to tell them who he was.

"Strange as it may seem, I am your mother's brother. I've been wondering where she was, and you looked so much like your father I though you might have relation. Though it seems you don't know anything about the matter either." Julie stared at him, hope in her eyes.

"You're... You're our uncle?" She asked, breaking her silence. Jazz looked quite surprised.

"She likes ya. So dat's good, I don't have ta worry as much. Whadda we call ya anyway?"

ONE WEEK LATER

Shadow groaned in irritation as Jazz took off running again. This was the second time his nephew had purposely woken him up with a feather on his nose in the middle of the night. The young hedge-fox found it funny, being part fox, he could see better in the dark, thus having an advantage and being unable to be caught, unlike during the day.

He had taken the two children back his own 'home' that he and his son had been staying at. Julie hadn't been any trouble at all' she would just sit in her wheel chair, and do tings on her computer.

But Jazz, it was hard to tell which was faster, his feet, or how many pranks he could pull. But Shadow didn't even attempt to punish him, after all, he was just a kid, he should have fun, and he whenever he made a mess he cleaned it up before his uncle could even think to ask him to.

Shade had not returned yet, but Shadow was so preoccupied now with his nephew and niece that he had little time to really think about his son. And besides, Shade was of age anyway, he often thought as an excuse.

Shadow walked back towards his room, next time he wasn't even going to get up. He halted as he passed the room that the two little ones shared, of course Jazz wasn't there, but he heard whimpering coming from it.

He slowly opened the door, becoming quiet as he walked over to Julie's bed. She was curled up in a ball under the covers, trembling and crying in her sleep. It was then that Shadow realized Jazz always seemed tired during the day, often dozing off for short periods of time, only to wake up in shock a couple minutes later, because he didn't sleep at night, not at all.

Julie was quiet all the time, but always had sad eyes, and she shared the same sleepy look like her brother. Jazz kept himself awake so that he didn't sleep like his sister, in a nightmare.

Shadow wasn't sure what to do, when Shade was young he had help, but now he was alone with these two... He heard footsteps in the hall, and looked to the doorway, the little hedge-fox was standing there.

"She does that everynight." He whispered, before running off again.

Shadow turned back to Julie, then reached down and picked her up from under the blanket. He sat down on the bed and held her close until she stopped crying, but still didn't leave. If she needed to sleep on him to keep her nightmares at bay then it was fine with him. THe black hedgehog didn't mind, the fact that his own son was fully-grown finally hitting him, he realized that perhaps this was what he needed to ease his loneliness.

He was nearly asleep when he felt another body rest on his besides the little girl's, and when he opened his eyes, he saw it was Jazz. The boy had been watching them, and tears had come to him when he realized how jealous he was of his sister. He hadn't slept like that for so long, and he was so tired that he had tossed his spunky attitude and pride aside.

Jazz was asleep within moments, but it was restful and without nightmares, and Shadow wondered again what they had gone through.

When the black hedgehog woke up, Jazz and Julie were still sleeping, lying there on either side of him with their heads on his chest. He blinked and looking up saw his own son standing next to the bed, making a mocking 'Isn't that so adorable?!' face. Shadow rolled his eyes then jerked his head at him. Shade understood, leaving the room to wait patiently.

By the time Shadow had managed to slip out of the bed without waking the children, Shade ws no longer in the house. He was standing outside, alone. The sunrise was casting its rays on him and his father noticed had an anxious look on his face. Shadow walked down to him, wondering if now he would finally get an answer.

"Where'd you find the kids? Look really familiar..." Shade asked him with a wink. He's hiding something, Shadow thought.

"Shade, I want to know where you've been going, and I want to know right now. I've been putting with it long enough, with you sneaking off." His father told him. The younger hedgehog stared at him for a minute, then turned away.

"Well, deal with the disappointment, because I'm not telling you quite yet. And you cannot stop me either." His on said, his expression blank. Without warning, he pulled out a Chaos Emerald, and teleported away.


	7. Chapter 7

Shadow sighed in irritation. How long would his son be gone this time? He heard the door to the house behind him open and turned, Jazz was standing on the porch.

"Who was that, Uncle Shads?" The little hedge-fox asked him.

Shadow smiled, trying to keep his mood cheerful for his nephew. "That was your cousin. His name's Shade. Sadly, he hasn't been taking me seriously lately." He muttered. Jazz tilted his head in wonder.

"Don't worry about it. Come on, you want breakfast right?"Jazz nodded and snickered as he shook his itchy quills, he was just as long furred as his father.

They went inside to find Julie sitting at the table in her wheel chair. Their uncle poured them some cereal and juice then got himself a piece of fruit.

"Uncle Shadow, have you found out where Momma and Poppa went yet?" His niece asked him. The black hedgehog looked her with pity. She was so small and frail, and easily frightened as well. She always had another question for him, another and another and another...

"I don't think they want to be found right now. But I'm sure they'll be back for you soon, I'll watch you until then." Shadow woreded it as carefully as he could, but he could still see the sadness growing in her face. Jazz didn't say anything, though his uncle could tell he was ready to fall into despair again.

"Don't worry about it. I won't let them find you. I promise." Shadow said, putting his apple down, having suddenly lost his appetite. He still wasn't sure what to do. He couldn't go looking for his sister or Omar; he absolutely couldn't leave these two alone. The government was most likely still after them, that was what he had meant with the promise. From what they had done already, he knew what would happen if they found the little ones, and they would never survive it.

Disgusting humans, they think they have the right to do whatever they want to us, the hedgehog thought to himself. Then, a sudden idea came to him. A place where they could be positvely safe, somewhere he knew that the government couldn't reach them. The ARK.

"So, this place is in space? We in space now?" Shadow's green furred nephew asked him. The elder nodded to him, smiling.

"Yes. This is where I used to live. It's very safe, from the humans. Most of them don't even know about it, and the ones that do, can't get near it without me knowing about it hours before hand." He said.

The twin hedge-foxes stared in wonder at all the technology of the space station. Their uncle had used Chaos Control to get them there, so they hadn't been able to wonder at a space shuttle or such.

"Now, this space colony has everything you need, I brought food, and there's running water and bathrooms already. You two know how to take care of yourselves, so, do you both feel safe enough here to be alone for a while each day?" Julie and Jazz turned to look at him as he said this.

"You're leaving us?!" the boy asked, his eyes narrowing. His sister was starting to tremble again in fear.

"Not if you don't want me to. I was going to go looking for your parents, since it's safe here, but if you prefer to just wait, we can do that to. They know if I ever found you I would take you here." Shadow said, realizing that Jazz looked irritated with him.

"Please don't go...!" Julie whimpered, still shaking in terror of being left again.

"Alright, I'll wait." Their uncle told them, and they began to unload the boxes they had packed.

Within the hour they had all gone to bed and finished arranging everything. Shadow was lying with them resting against him, they were asleep but he was not. He kept thinking about what could possibly be going on with his sister, there was no way she would abandon her own kits without a truly good reason, especially after what they had already been through. But what could it be? His mind dwelled long on the thought until he fell to sleep himself.

Shadow awoke in the middle of the night to hear footsteps in the hallway. He was immediately fully aware, and carefully slipped away from the little ones, going to the door.

How had someone gotten aboard without him knowing?! The humans didn't have the technology to fool him, as he had made even new advances to the ARK himself, even better then the professor's.

Whoever it was, the black hedgehog knew that they would never get near the kits, he would protect them with his life.

Shadow pulled a gun out of a small door in the wall and cocked it, he would take this person by surprise. Opening the door, he leapt out onto the intruder, a hand around the neck and the gun to the forehead.

"Ahhh! Please sir, I mean no harm, I only wanted to hide!" The small creature yelped. Shadow still did not let it up, he didn't trust someone who could sneak aboard the ARK without him being aware of it.

"Do I really look like a threat, sir? I'm completely unarmed!" The black hedgehog stared at this new aquaintance for a moment, then let the strange white rabbit stand. She was wearing a pink dress with flowers on it, and had matching bows on her ears.

"Thank you, sir. Could you please put that away?" She asked him, pointing to the gun.

"No. And it is I who should be asking the questions. How did you get here, and who are you?!" Shadow kept his voice down, but not his tone, as not wanted to disturb the sleeping children in the next room. THe rabbit blinked her pink eyes at him and smiled, she couldn't be no older then 16.

"My name is Snowflake, everyone calls me Snow however. I've been here for quite some time, I first came upon this place when I was fleeing the humans, I stumbled into an abandoned base of some sort, and there was a teleporting device there. It led here, and thus I have been safe." She explained. Shadow was silent for a moment, then nodded.

"That doesn't surprise me, the humans wil never learn. Even some of our own kind have adopted those horrifying characteristics." Snow shook her head sadly, and Shadow noticed that she looked disturbed.

"You are sure it was humans that were chasing you?" He asked. She remained silent, looking away. Apparently not, she must have had an experiance similar to his own. There wasn't one day that went by that he didn't think of his murdered mate.

"This place is called Space Colony ARK, it used to be a space station and research lab that belonged to the humans, since they have abandoned it, I have reclaimed it for my own, this is where I was 'born'. You can stay here if you like." Shadow left here, going back into the room with the kits and laying down with them again.

Snow didn't make any more noise that night. The albino must have gone to sleep, the hedgehog thought to himself, just before he drifted off.

Shadow looked for Snow in the morning, and found her staring out his window. The window he had looked out so many times at the earth. She looked as if she had been crying. Jazz and Julie were still sleeping, so he decided to find out what had really happened to the strange rabbit.

"So, what's all of the story, I know you didn't tell me everything." He said to her. Snow wasn't startled by his presence at all, in fact she seemed to know he was going to come to her. She sighed and closed her eyes.

"Originally, I was an experiment by the humans, my sister and I both, but the company that owned us was shut down, and we were sold as pets. We were seperated, but we have a telekinetic ability, and can sense each other." The white rabbit began, then stopped for a minute. Shadow waited patiently.

"Even though we're sisters, Abyss and I are complete opposites. While I was content with my humans, even though they were unkind to me, she escaped, and I can sense that she's living her life constantly on the run. She's always afraid, but she's searching for me, and someone's helping her, there is yet a small happiness in her life. I only wish for her to be safe." Snow finished, tears welling up in her eyes again.

The black hedgehog waited for a moment, still standing next to her. Then, an idea came to him. "I will find her for you. However, you will have to watch the two hedge-fox kits, they are frightened to be left alone. They've gone though something very similar with the humans."

Without another word, he left. He had only a name, but that was enough, he would find this rabbit, and bring her to her sister.

It took him awhile to get on the right track, days in fact, but he knew that this lead was true when he heard the rabbit's name. It was in the downtown slums of Westopolis, and the group he was looking for was walking out of a rambunctious looking club.

They all appeared heavily drunk, and were wobbling dangerously, nearly falling over. All of them except two. These two were a jet-black rabbit and a white and blue badger. THey were holding hands as they walked, and seemed only slightly tipsy.

The pair went into an apartment complex, and going to the top floor, entered one of the rooms. Immediately they fell to the floor together, and though they fell asleep in each others arms, they didn't do anything.

Shadow opened a window and sat on their couch, waiting for them to wake up. They remained unconcious until the morning came, and not realizing that the black hedgehog was there, began kissing each other hungrily.

Surely the alcohol is out of their systems by now, the hedgehog thought. The two stopped after a couple minutes, getting up and smiling at each other.

"We need to look again today. Betu." The black rabbit, who was apparently Abyss, said. The badger winked at her and went into the kitchen, getting out food.

"Yes, my sweet, little licorice." He said. All the while Shadow stood against the wall by the door.

"You know you really should make sure no one is in your house when you get home." Shadow said casually.The two animals jumped in surprise, then Betu jumped in front of the rabbit in a protective stance, growling.

"I assume that you are filth hired by the humans?!" He barked. The ebon hedgehog smirked.

"No, actually, Snow told me to find you. I was aboard my space station when she intruded, attempting to hide form the humans. I told her she could stay until I found you." Shadow told them. That was when the hedgehog noticed that the badger had gotten larger, and looked fiercer then ever, the creature's fur standing on end and his eyes turning red with rage.

Abyss stepped in front of her friend, her hands on his as she tried to calm him down.

"Betu, it's all right. I think he's telling the truth, stop it right now!" The black rabbit said to him. At her harsh tone, the blue one halted, then returned to normal, becoming slightly smaller again. Abyss turned to Shadow.

"Whenever he gets angry or protective, he can flex his muscles a certain way so that they make him appear larger. He's also immensely strong for being so small, even though badgers are usually big." She explained.

"I see. Looks like a bit of an anger problem as well." Shadow muttered. Betu snorted at this, but let it go.

"Basically yeah, I have been running from the humans, so has Betu, but we have been looking for her. So, you going to take us to her or what?" Abyss was a cocky, smart-aleck kind of person, Shadow realized, and not afraid of anyone, very unlike her sister.

The rabbit had many earrings on her ears, and wore a light brown outfit of pants and a tank top. She also had on brown boots, whereas her sister had pink sandals.

"Yes, hopefully the kits will not be angry that I have been gone so long." THe black hedgehog said to himself as he started to lead them away.

It turned out that the twins were all right being left with the rabbit, they didn't mind as long as they had someone to watch them and knew what was going on. Snow was overjoyed to see her sister, and was quite shocked that Abyss had found someone to love.

Shadow thought the threesome might ask him to stay on the ARK, but to his surprise they left quickly, thanking him and then leaving happily. He wondered where they would go, now that they all had each other, though the humans were searching for them.

Maybe they would hide in the wilderness or something he wondered. The black hedgehog had a strange feeling though, that he would see them again.

It was one day that Shadow was taking a nap with Julie when they came. The little hedge-fox still couldn't sleep without him near, and she had been tired a bit mroe then usual during that day.

Shadow heard footstops near him and opened his eyes, thinking it was Jazz, only to find a cloth being pressed over his nose and mouth. Starting to struggle, he breathed in the strong sedative, and within half a minute fell unconsciousness. Likewise happened to the crippled kit next to him, though Jazz had been shot with it by means of a dart earlier.

The hedgehog opened his eyes to find himself in the dark. It was pitch black, there was only a faint light from the bottom of a door crack, and that itself was at least twenty yards away. His head was throbbing with pain, no doubt from the drug, and his arms and legs felt strangely difficult to move. Shadow tried to move his limbs again, and he realized he couldn't move but a couple feet, when he heard the creaking of the titanium chains holding him.

He moaned in despair, it seemed that the humans would never let him be free, they were always looking for him. Whenever something happened in the world that was terribly wrong, they sought to blame him, what could it be this time?

His thoughts turned to the kits, his niece and nephew, he had failed to protect them, he would never forgive himself if something happened to them. But the question lingered in his minnd, how did the humans get aboard the ARK?

A couple hours later, the lights in his cell suddenly blasted on. Shadow closed his eyes tight, being blinded temporarily, then slowly opened them as they adjusted.

Bujin?! It couldn't be! Shadow stared at the abomination that stood before him, horrified. It didn't look anything like the crazed scientist, with robotic body parts and bits and pieces of a hedgehog here and there, but the eyes, and the dark grin. Those eyes, he had looked into them before slitting the creature's throat. He had seen that evil smile, when Bujin had laughed at him and swore he would come back to torture him if even it was in the after life.

"You!! I killed you, you monster!!!" Shadow screamed as he fought against the bindings. But they held him tight, and he was unable to reach the demonic scientist. The creature laughed, a metallic ring to the still evil sound.

"Yes, you did. I congratulate you on that. However, a fellow scientist decided that I deserved another life. I now serve the genius of Dr. Robotnik, helpin him build his great empire, so that one day we shall rule the world. Then, I shall have all the animals I want to exeriment on! By the way, those kits of yours, quite interesting specimens they are..."

Shadow snarled, but no matter how hard he tried, no matter how much his rage fueled him, he couldn't destroy the chains that covered his body. He would always come within inches of Bujin, so close but yet unalbe to touch him, to wrap his hands around the fould monster's neck. Spit flew from his mouth and his eyes became bloodshot, but the vil android just stood there, watch him and laughing.

"You are mine forever, I shall drive you insane with pain!" These were the last words he heard from the scientist forever. The abomination left, leaving Shadow growling in the darkness again. So, that was why he hadn't detected any humans coming, it wasn't even a human. Bujin could have slipped aboard the ARK, he had the technology, though he had kept it a long secret from the government.

After a few hours, the hedgehog knew that all was lost. He had failed to protect the little ones, and what was more, they were being subjected to inhumane experiments. He didn't have to see it to know it was happening, what else would the scientist use them for?

He felt tears come to his eyes, and let them flow. No one was going to see him cry anyway, he wouldn't ever see the light of day again as far as he knew. Bujin wouldn't make the same mistake twice, whatever it had been before, he most certainly wouldn't do it again.


	8. Chapter 8

Shadow cried quietly until he felt he could do it no more, then he just lay there in his chains, believing that this cold, hard steel was all he would ever feel again. It was many hours that passed, and he suddenly shot up into a sitting position when he heard footsteps in the hallway. The door began to open, slowly, and he let himself fall to the floor again.

It didn't matter if it was Eggman or Bujin, he wouldn't acknowledge them. The hedgehog decided he would lay there until he died. Let them torture me, shock me, do whatever they want, I don't care anymore, he thought in despair. He closed his eyes, waiting for the pain. But none came.

Well, I see you were sleeping, so maybe I should just leave you alone for a while." Shadow shot up again, finding himself staring into the eyes of his sister.

"Foxy?! Where the HELL HAVE YOU BEEN?!" The fox sighed, taking out a rather curious looking device and using it to cut through his metal bonds. "Glad to see you too, brother. Next time I'll send Omar to save you instead of me." The purple fox muttered and began to walk towards the door. The ebon hedgehog followed her, irritated.

"It seems that even this world in danger from the Fallen Race. I guess you'll all be involved anyway." She said, almost to herself. They walked out the room into the hallway, and Shadow saw all that the place was practically falling apart. The walls were close to collapsing, huge holes and cracks in them, and fires were blazing. He stared at it in shock.

"Did you do all this?!" He asked her as they walked on. "In a way I did, but that isn't what matters." The hedgehog glanced at the mess around him again, then shook his head.

"So, you left your kits knowing I would find them? Why? What the Hell did you have to do that was more important them?!" Shadow started, his voice rising. They had left the filthy laboratory, now that it had been almost completely destroyed, and gone to the ARK. The black hedgehog had found some relief that his niece and nephew were unharmed, having been rescued by their father just an hour after they had been captured.

Bujin had been so busy with being sure Shadow was secure, he hadn't had time to conduct anything inhumane upon them. The two little hedge-foxes were sleeping in another room, Omar watching over them while their mother tried to explain what had happened.

"Yes, I trusted you would take care of them, and the time hasn't yet come for you to know where I was." The purple fox said softly. Her brother stared at her. Why is she acting like this, he wondered, her tone, and the way she is talking is different.

"What's going on?" He asked. She suddenly looked much older, more mature, and tired. Her eyes seemed to glow beyond their natural green, brighter and yet looking so forlorn. "As I said, it isn't yet time." Foxbeast whispered and her eyes glowed even brighter. Shadow watched curiously as she raised a hand up, a strange ball of light glowing in it, it wasn't a chaos emerald however. "Goodbye, for now, brother." The light grew brighter, then blinded him.

When Shadow awoke, he was lying facedown on the floor, alone. "Foxy? Jazz, Julie?!" He stood up and frantically searched for them, but the ARK was empty, save for himself. Again. "What is she doing?" The hedgehog asked himself.

He turned when he heard a sudden beeping coming from the bridge of the station. He ran to it, and sat in the chair as he saw the radar. Had the Black Arms returned? No, it couldn't be, these were different. Shadow quickly ran the computer controls, and brought the new images of the space ships on screen. They were all different sizes and styles, but there was one large one that stood out from all the others. It was possibly the greatest ship, besides one other that equaled its size.

It caught his eye only because unlike most of the others, it was covered in vines, and plants were flourishing on its hull. The others had similar differences, one seemed to have dark energy flowing all around it, and yet another was encased in water. They didn't seem to be coming to the earth though, just passing by.

The hedgehog waited. No hails were made, and they moved farther and farther away. He had a strange feeling about them, as if he was connected to them somehow, but as they moved out of sight and range of radar detection, he pushed the feeling away, and went back to wondering where his family had gone.

It wasn't but twenty minutes later when Shade teleported onto the ARK. "Where have you been?" His father asked him, rather annoyed. He knew from his son's confused expression that he had seen Foxy as well, and was wondering the same thing. "She had Jazz and Julie with her when I saw her. She gave me this." The younger hedgehog showed him a small crystal. It was glowing a bright lavender, like his eyes, and they could both feel the energy waves it was emitting.

"She said it was mine. And then she said yours was up here, and that the professor had hidden it from you." Shadow stared at him, shocked. Why would Professor Gerald hide something from him?

"When did you see her?" He asked his son. Not to his surprise, it was the same time about that the ships had been passing him by not to long ago.

"Well, let's go find this crystal of mine, whatever it's for." He muttered, and began walking out of the room. Shade followed him, putting his own crystal on himself like a necklace.

"Aunt Foxy said it was in the lower levels, somewhere around the C-86b2 section, and she said you'll have to hack it." He said as he adjusted his sash and tucked the crystal inside it. His father rolled his eyes, but followed the advice.

It took the hedgehog longer than he thought it would, to hack the ARK's main computer for this section. He had never been here before, much less tried to enter it. 'I wonder why the professor never told me about this, whatever it is.' He thought to himself. The room was dark and small, with a small platform in the middle.

There, encased in a glass covering, was a crimson red crystal. He took it, and when he left the room, the door sealed shut and locked once more. He immediately felt a connection to it, a power seeming to flow through it and into himself. "Whatever this is…" Shadow never even finished his sentence, instead, he turned to look for Shade, who had again disappeared.

Shadow once again went to the earth, but this time it was not to look for Shade. He wanted to know what this crystal was, and why he suddenly felt as if energy was moving through his entire body and soul. The hedgehog was in Japan walking down the sidewalk, when he heard a familiar laugh.

Turning, he saw a rather young purple hedge-fox across the street. She was skipping happily down the lane. Shadow's jaw dropped. It couldn't be her, Julie, walking?! And then, just as quickly as she was there, she pulled out a crystal that was glowing and emerald green, and began twirling it. It glowed brighter, and an orb appeared out of nowhere in front of her, the same color as the gem, and the faster she spun, the faster it grew.

Within moments, she had leapt into it and disappeared, orb, crystal and all. Shadow ran to the spot he had seen her, but she was truly gone. He copied her movements with his own gem, but to no avail, and after a while, he finally accepted the fact that he couldn't follow her.

Now again, he wondered what Shade was doing. He didn't have to wonder long, as his son once again appeared without warning next to him. "Good, I was just wondering about you. Hold onto this for me." Shadow handed the younger hedgehog his crystal. Shade stared at him strangely, but took it without a word, and teleported away.


	9. Chapter 9

Shadow and Shade staggered up to Rouge's house, police sirens not to far off down the street. Shadow reached up and rang the doorbell. "If she's not home, we're in big trouble, they've been chasing us for four days straight!" he gasped, leaning on Shade. He had nearly been hit with a grenade, just managing to dodge it, but the blast had caused a rockslide to fall on him. Shade had dug him out and they had continued running, but he was considerably weaker.

Rouge opened the door, shocked. "Oh my...... Come in, hurry up!!" the white bat said, helping the two black hedgehogs inside. She closed the door just as the heavy armored G.U.N. trucks came roaring around the corner. They passed the house, assuming that their targets had gone ahead. "Thanks Rouge........" said Shadow as he collapsed from exhaustion.

"So, you're his son? Talk about weird....." the she said. Shade looked at her from his chair at the table, and she didn't question the fact. They looked so much alike, father and son. The only differences were Shade wore a red sash around his neck, and had a scar over his left eye. His eyes were also a blazing purple. The bat was dressed in very tight clothing, showing off her figure, which served its purpose in distracting him.

"Why do you find it strange?" he asked, curious. They had dragged Shadow to the couch and let him sleep on it, then went in the kitchen and started talking. After a brief explanation about the government chasing them, Rouge sighed, her ears drooping a bit.

"Do you know about his past?" she asked, getting up and looking in the fridge. "Well, he told me how he met my mother, what happened to her, and that, but........... I never really asked him about before that......" The black hedgehog said thoughtfully, still staring at her. Rouge shook her head, turning to leave for another room. "You want something to eat, help yourself, I can't cook, I'm always ordering delivery or take-out, I think there's pizza and egg rolls in there."

About an hour later, Shade walked into the room that they had left Shadow in. He was gone, and the white bat that called herself Rouge was nowhere to be seen either. Suspicious, Shade looked around the house for them. After a couple minutes of searching, he found the two standing outside on the back porch. He snuck up closer, listening to their conversation. "Just like old times, eh, Shadow? Don't know how much influence I have, but I can try to get them to stop bothering you." Rouge was saying, standing a couple feet from his father.

The taller black hedgehog stared out into the sunset, in deep thought. "This new president, he shares the commander's view about you, and he doesn't care what other people think." Sighed Rouge. "Hm....... We can't hide here forever, once they've realized that they've lost us, they will come back. And seeing that you live on this street, it will bring them quickly, they know that you trust me." Shadow said, glancing at her.

Shade walked up to them, his curiosity getting the better of him. "Then what do we do, just sit here and wait around?" They turned, Shadow smiling. The way the bat dressed didn't seem to surprise or disturb him at all, it was as if he was used to it. "We should find a place to hide, one they won't detect." He said, knowing that his son had most likely been listening to their whole conversation. "The government's getting faster Shadow, It won't be easy to...."Rouge had started to say, before four large G.U.N. helicopters came flying over the yard, followed by squads of troops leaping over the fence.

"You're under arrest, Rouge the Bat, C.I.A. Agent, for disclosing weapons of mass destruction and attempting to conceal wanted criminals! Hands up where we can see them!" a megaphone from the helicopter said, as the searchlights blinded them. "Shoot!! Faster than even I thought!!! They've completely turned on me!" Rouge gasped as the soldiers began closing in cautiously, all of them watching the two black hedgehogs fearfully.

"Why are they so afraid of us?" Shade asked, turning to Shadow, "Thinking we're wanted criminals is one thing, but it's as if they've had experience with our kind before." His father looked at him, an ancient pain reawakened in his mind. "Don't worry about that, just concentrate on getting away!" He said, moving in front of Rouge, protectively. Humans would often be merciless when they feared someone or something, and he knew that even though she was supposed to be one of their own, they wouldn't hesitate to harm her if she got in the way.

"Rouge, what will it be? Us, or them?" he asked her, the G.U.N. troops cocking their weapons. "There's a hidden passageway in the house we can use, follow me! Heh, why do you even bother asking that question?!" The sassy bat turned, leading them into the house.

The tunnel led out into the city, right out of a sewer line. They popped out of the street, and a car came flying in their direction. The threesome dodged out of the way, shocked. "So, Shadow. You have defeated our brothers, you traitor!! However, we shall give you one more chance to join us, come destroy the humans!" they heard a booming voice say.

Even before the dust cleared, Shadow knew who it was. "Black Doom?!" The alien creature laughed maliciously, as other dark creatures that looked just like itself floated beside it. "Yes, if you thought that there was only one of us, you were gravely mistaken. We said we would rise again, and so we have. I am another of the Morsentith, leader of the army. After the failure of the last, we decided to investigate what happened. It is obvious that you've turned on us, you foul little hedgehog. This time there will be no mistakes, we are more numerous and this time we are in full force, what you saw before was only a small portion of our army! We are the supreme race!!" said a second Black Doom.

A silence passed between them, the sounds of destruction echoing in the background. Shade looked at his father, shocked at the vengeful, angry look in his eyes. Shade looked at the aliens, and then at himself, suddenly realizing by what they had meant by traitor. Could it be.......? He turned to Rouge, who had, for the first time, a fearful look in her eyes. He inched towards her, and when he was close enough whispered her a question. "I've never seen him this way before..... Is this something to do with the past?"

The evil creatures were staring at him suspiciously, looking slightly unnerved by his presence. Shadow continued his silence, trying to make a painful decision. "Got it right, if there is one thing Shadow has trouble with, it's his past. I think I know what he will choose, but even with the government's help last time, we were barely able to drive off these creatures. I'm not sure if we stand much of a chance now." Rouge muttered, keeping her eyes trained on the aliens.

Another one of them came forward, just a couple yards from Shadow, far bigger than the rest. "I am the supreme ruler of this entire race, I am the Black Doom, leader of all the Black Arms! Make your decision, our impatience is growing!" he said forcefully. "Take in mind though, that this is not my natural form though……."

Shadow suddenly appeared to come out of his trance, shaking his head. "Black Doom, you used me last time, nearly causing me to betray my promise. Now, I will show you who the true Ultimate Lifeform really is!" he said, clenching his hands into fists. Then, he turned and glanced at Shade. "Hmph. The TWO Ultimate Lifeforms, that is!!" Shadow corrected himself. "So, you have spawn. We shall show the humans no mercy, as for you and your offspring, you shall both be tortured until death!!" The dark leader roared, and his hoard charged.

The Black Arms were not driven out of the city, however. Shadow, Shade, and Rouge fought as one team, but where unable to defeat the numberless army. "Shadow, we have to retreat!! Even the G.U.N. forces have regrouped, there are just too many!!" Rouge said as she shot down an alien with it's own laser gun. "She's right, we need a plan!" yelled Shade, attacking a worm that was emerging from the ground. Shadow machine-gunned a bunch of the aliens, and felt that even with his crystal, he was weakening.

They were right, they had been fighting for hours and were growing weak. "Follow me." He said, leading them away. Shade grabbed Rouge's hand and they rocketed out of the city, the white bat being pulled along by their dragwinds.

Once they were a safe distance from the dark army, they collapsed in a meadow clearing, trying to catch their breath. Immediately they were surrounded by G.U.N. troops, all their weapons drawn and aimed at them. The Commander stepped out of their midst. "Keep it in mind we don't seek you because of what you've done, like before, but because of what you are! You are far too dangerous to be kept alive! Surrender, and we'll make it painless." The older man said, a dangerous look in his eyes.

"What?! We have just as much a right to live as anyone else!" Shade said, still not understanding. He had only seen the commander a couple of times, and he didn't know of the humans connections with his father's past. "You were artificially created by the government, you have no rights!! You belong to us!" said the Commander as he stared at them. "I might have been, but he was not! Regardless of the matter, every living being has the right to freedom, I am not your slave!!" Shadow shouted, seething.

Shade looked at him, slightly confused. His father had been artificially created? What did they mean? What was this human talking about?! "I've had enough of this! You have the blood of the enemy flowing within you both, destroying you now while you are weak will save us the trouble of having to deal with you later in real battle! Are you going to surrender or not?!"

Shadow stared at him for a moment, anger burning within his heart. "No, we will not. I will not die a slave to humans or anyone for that matter. Go ahead and shoot us, we're too weak to fight back anyway, especially against your numbers." He said, standing. Shade stood up next to him, and Rouge followed. "Never thought this was gonna happen." She said, trying to keep her voice calm. His son was still confused, but would stand by his father's side no matter what decision was made. "Fine. Fire at will!" the Commander said, signaling to his troops.

A pause issued, and most of the troops uncocked their guns and lowered them. Many of them had been in service the last time this had happened, and remembered what Shadow had done. They had been ordered to shoot him on sight, but when they were in need, he had helped them, or just ignored them. He had attacked a few before he had found out about his past, but had sorely regretted it, and ended up saving the planet. "What are you doing?! I said fire!!" The Commander ordered again, his face filled with anger.

A soldier lifted his goggles off his face so that he was recognizable. Shadow looked and realized he had been one of the many that he had seen fallen on the ground. The soldier had begged to be spared, and the hedgehog had given him a healing unit before speeding away.

"I said I would never forget it, and I meant it." The G.U.N. recruit said, and he tossed his weapon on the ground. Others around him began doing the same, eventhough some had never encountered Shadow before, they remembered that they owed him their lives for destroying the first Black Doom. Shade blinked in wonderment, there truly was a large chapter of his father's life that he didn't know about. Shadow remained speechless, and he glanced at Rouge. "See, there are quite a few humans that do have feelings." She told him, giving him a wink. The Commander didn't say anything, he just left, his face contorted with anger.

The troops left them largely alone, though alot of them would salute or wink at Shadow as he passed through their camp. The entire G.U.N. army had camped in one spot, as there were not many of them left, having taken heavy casualties before retreating. A couple of the troops asked if he would stay for a while, offering him a tent, whereas he would shake his head and continue walking.

He did accept a few guns that they gave him, knowing that they would come in handy. He was anxious to leave them though, he noticed the strange stares that Shade attracted, and knew that even though he acted calm on the outside, his mind was a torrent, and his heart was burning with questions.

Rouge acted used to this, winking at a few, everyonce and a while when someone would address her, she would say that they would take those alien slugs down. As they passed the medical tent, Shadow saw Shade shudder as he heard a soldier screaming in pain as they amputated a limb, having completely run out of anesthesia.

When they were on the edge of the camp, the band of Team Chaotix agents passed them. "Commander's got a special job for us, says he'll pay big!!" Vector said. Charmy Bee did a somersault in the air. "Yeah!! A job!!" he squealed. "You better not act stupid in front of him, Charmy!!" Vector replied, swinging his crocodilian tail in annoyance. "Yes, attempt to behave yourself, I grow weary of small, simple jobs." Espio said quietly. Vector looked at the purple chameleon, his frustration growing. "Like I had a choice! Trust Charmy with buying groceries?! He'd bring back honey, and I was fixing the roof!!" he said. "Yeah, that was from my homerun!!" the bee buzzed happily. Shadow, Shade, and Rouge left them, the detectives not even noticing their exit, continued arguing.

"Bet I know what job the Commander's giving them." Rouge said, shaking her head. "Do you know them?" Shade asked, them having finally left the camp. His father remained silent, he just continued walking and staring ahead. "Unfortunately, yes, we do." The white bat said, rolling her eyes. "I bet he's going to ask them to hunt us down and murder us, how ridiculous. They'd never take a job like that, he's wasting his time." Shadow muttered, running his hands through his red tinted quills.

The father waited for the questions to start, but they didn't. Instead, his son suggested that they stop somewhere and get some rest. Shadow still said nothing, but nodded. He knew what Shade was doing. When Rouge was gone, and they had some privacy, then he would ask.

When they awoke the next day, Shade knew everything. Shadow had told him all about his past, and it had shaken him. He had always just assumed that his father was like everyone else, and that he had parents once too. Shade couldn't imagine the pain he had gone through, not having parents, having been created for two opposite purposes, and losing the only ones he loved by people he thought he could trust.

They stood up in the woods that they had chosen to spend the night in, a note falling off Shade's chest. He picked it up and read it. "Gone to get spy stuff and some decent food. Meet you at Westopolis. Rouge."

Meeting Rouge in Westopolis as she requested, they found her in a new spy suit, and of course, it was tight fitting like all the rest of her outfits. Shadow ignored this, and examined a piece of her equipment.

"Shoot, I forgot the takeout. Shadow, could you pick it up for me?" she said, handing him a slip of paper with an address on it and some money. He rolled his eyes at her, and turned to leave. "You know how to take advantage of people, I'm starving." Shadow said as he left, not noticing the look that passed between the bat and his son.

After a very annoying trip in which he had found Rouge had given him the correct name of the place but the wrong address, Shadow started back towards where they had first met, carrying four boxes of various kinds of pizza. "Just wait 'til I get my hands on her....." he muttered, walking into the small park.

He looked around, but didn't see them anywhere, and then realized that it was quiet, too quiet. He set the food down, hearing something not too far into the small patch of trees. He silently walked in, keeping himself hidden, and nearly gasped at what he was seeing. Shade and a female black hedgehog were sitting on a small bench, or was the girl sitting on Shade?

They had their arms wrapped tightly around each other, and were kissing one another hungrily. Shadow had never seen this girl before, where had she come from? She looked an awful lot like themselves, except her marks were an aqua color, and she was a light gray. Shadow watched as they continued to press their bodies close, Shade's hands clutching at the other hedgehog's back. She moaned with pleasure, and kissed him harder. Had this been why his son was disappearing so much?

For a moment, Shadow wanted to walk in and stop them, but then thought better of it. This was something he hadn't seen coming, something he wouldn't have imagined in his strangest dreams. Shade, in love, when had this happened? The way they were kissing, their mouths planted so firmly together, and the way he was touching her… The ebon hedgehog suddenly smiled to himself, and now understood his son's strange disappearances.

He turned and left, going back to the pizza. He could leave for a while and come back, saying he had gotten lost....... The pizza had disappeared, and Shadow looked around to see who had taken it. "Hey, Shadow. Why don't you come get it?" a voice above him said. He looked up to see Rouge sitting in a low branch of a tree. "So that's why you gave me the wrong address. You know, if he had asked I would have left him alone for a while!" he said.

The bat hopped down out of the tree with the pizza, handing a piece to him. "Sure you would have. He's been seeing her for a long time now it seems, surprising that he never told you. She got here about an hour ago, and was very upset with the Black Arms running about and all. Her name's Atlantis." Rouge snickered. He replied, "Gives me the creeps, Shade looks so much like me, it's like watching a mirror...."

Rouge handed him the entire pizza box, as her black friend had already finished scarfing his first piece, and still looked like he wanted more. "Originally we wanted you gone so that we could talk, but after I noticed Atlantis staring at him, I kinda just drifted off, giving the excuse that I was watching for you. They snuck away, believing that I wasn't paying attention. How old is Shade, by the way?" she asked looking at him kind of funny.

Shadow shook his head, still suprised that Shade was doing this. "Technically, he's about five. But for some reason, his genes caused him to age faster, and just last year he stopped changing entirely. His body is at the size and strength of a nineteen year old, but he has much spirit." Rouge choked on her food, suprised. "So he's a five year old stuck in a teenager's body?!" she asked, catching her breath. "No. You haven't been paying attention. His mind is just as intelligent as his body, like me, he has the capability to learn faster than anyone I have ever seen." Shadow answered.

Atlantis leaned against Shade on the bench having stopped kissing him for a moment. They had sat on the bench earlier, just talking, but after a couple minutes, they had scooted closer to each other. They looked away, still talking. "So, has he been asking where you been disappearing to?" the pretty hedgehog had asked him. "Yes, he's getting quite frustrated with me." He said, still not looking at her. She turned and watched him, waiting.

Atlantis still dared not tell him where she came from, what would he think, her being one of Professor Gerald's as well? She placed her hand down on the bench on top of Shade's, not realizing it was there. He looked at her, his eyes glistening. She moved closer to him, until they were right next to each other, then put her hand on his knee. ".... I was just about to come get you, you know." Shade began, though he didn't have any time to explain. Atlantis suddenly leapt at him, wrapping her arms behind his neck and forcing her lips to his.

The black hedgehog's eyes widened in shock, and his chest swelled. He closed his eyes and before he knew what he was doing, he began to kiss her back. As time passed, they grew fiercer, each struggling to outdo the other. When they had stopped, they were gasping for breath. "I know you were. You always come when I'm in trouble." She whispered before they started again.

"Hey, you hear that?!" Shadow said, turning towards the park entrance. Rouge followed his eyes and saw nearly fifty Black Arm troops chasing down a strange grayish hedgehog. The small creature ran into a dead end, and turned to face her enemy. "ATLANTIS!! Where are YOU!?!" she yelled fearfully. The aliens edged closer to her, pointing their weapons at her. "Let's go help her!!" Shadow said, beginning to run over.

Atlantis heard the cry, and immediately got off Shade, whom she had been kissing again. "Coral!!" she said, tearing out of the woods. Shade followed her out of curiosity, he had never seen her sister before. She saw Shadow just ahead of her, and knew she had to reach her sister before he did. Most likely he wanted to help, but she knew that she could take no chances. They had been the failed experiments of the professor, and she didn't trust the stronger hedgehog. Even though the professor said they weren't ultimate, he still cared for them.

Even so, Atlantis and Coral had longed for the sea that they had been named after. They left without so much as a good-bye, afraid the professor would try to stop them. They had left on the same day that Shadow had been created, taking the opportunity of Gerald being busy to leave. Atlantis and Coral had not been created by Black Doom's blood, instead, they had been made with the legendary eighth Chaos Emerald, the Dark Jewel of the Ocean. Because of this, they could use Chaos Control without holding an Emerald, but they still were not strong enough.

Shadow destroyed the aliens as Atlantis took Coral's hand. She had taken a chance with Shade, but believed that it would be all right if Shadow wasn't there. Now, she feared the black hedgehog that was supposedly protecting them. "We must leave! C'mon, we can't trust him!" Atlantis told Coral and they began to speed away. Unfortunately, Shadow heard this, and having gotten rid of the Black Arms, moved to follow them.

By this time Shade had arrived, and began to pursue them as well. As Atlantis turned to see how far they were behind them, Shadow saw the look of fear in her eyes. "Chaos..... CONTROL!!" she yelled, her and Coral disappearing.

"I don't understand........ What did she mean? Why did she flee from us?" Shade asked his father sadly. Shadow shook his head, confused. "I have no idea, I was helping her!" he said. Rouge didn't say anything to them, she was on a computer muttering distractedly. "So, you like her?" Shadow inquired. His son glared at him, knowing that his father had seen them together. "What's it to..." he began to snap, interrupted by Rouge. "Aha!! I knew they looked familiar!! Take a look at this guys!" the white bat said, looking up.

Her two dark companions came over and looked at the computer screen. "Hey! That's them!!" said Shade, bewildered. "Project Atlantis-Coral. Upon discovery of the legendary eighth Chaos Emerald, I have begun a project that may result in the ultimate Lifeforms. The two creatures that have come out of this have been named Atlantis and Coral, for the place the Emerald was first discovered, the Lost City of Atlantis, the jewel being in the coral growing within the city. The power of the emerald flows within them, for it is one with their bodies. Atlantis is the stronger of the two, using her strength to defeat the testing machines, but she has no mind for puzzles and computers. Coral is smaller, and does not have the immense power like that of her sister, but has such a great mind that she can easily trick anyone or anything, whether it be a machine or a living being. Alone they have their weaknesses, and are not strong enough, but together, they are the ultimate team, able to accomplish anything they set their minds to. I understand that they are not what I'm searching for, and have begun a new project, a project that has so much power that it will be hard to contain. The project was running smoothly at first, but there are some complications, I have decided to name the resulting creature Shadow, that is, if he survives to take his first breath. I need something powerful, something that will help him endure the transfer from the tube............." Rouge was reading, until she was interrupted.

"Stop it!! Stop reading!! I don't want to hear it!!" yelled Shadow, turning away so they couldn't see the tears threatening to spring up in his eyes. Rouge turned the laptop off, shaking her head. Shade stared at his father, whose back was turned to them. Shadow was shaking, he knew that if Rouge had kept reading, eventually the diary would have said something about Maria, and he couldn't bare the thought of hearing about her again.

"Hey, why did we have to run? I thought you liked them, and aren't we sorta friends having been all been made by the Professor?" Coral asked, staring at her sister. They had teleported to a building not far away, and were watching the threesome from a safe distance.

"Coral... Shadow is the Ultimate Lifeform, he may see us as rivals of some sort. Or perhaps even a reminder of Maria.... I know that they were good friends, she certainly was to us." Said Atlantis, glancing at her sister, who aside from size looked just like her. The only differences between them was that Coral wore a small charm bracelet, a bracelet the professor said had been found in the city of Atlantis, and the crescent marks on their head stripes were facing in the opposite directions.

"You mean that girl with the blond hair that was always baking sweets with us? I liked her too, so what's wrong with it?" she asked. The taller hedgehog kept on staring, constantly watchful. "Coral, if he sees us as rivals, he would most likely seek to destroy us. If we are a constant reminder of his painful past, what do you think he would do about that?!" Coral stood up and gazed at her sister.

"I don't want to think about that, what if he doesn't care about that? I lost my laptop in the confusion by the way, we have to find it, I can't live without it, I would go crazy!!" she said, twirling her charms. "Your laptop's down there, it's too risky to try anything!" Atlantis replied. Coral gave her a mischievous look. "Not under the cover of nightfall it isn't." The witty one said, watching the sun beginning to set.

They tiptoed as quietly as possible into the camp, looking for the laptop. Passing Shadow they froze as he shifted in his sleep. "Maria.... no.... leave her alone...." he muttered, turning onto his side. They relaxed as he seemed to fall into a deeper sleep. Coral pointed towards Shade, the laptop setting next to him. Atlantis nodded and walked over to it.

As she bent down to pick it up, Shade's eyes shot open and he grabbed her arm. She didn't move, afraid that he would wake the others. However, he put a finger to his lips and said 'shhhhh'. Shade stood up with the computer, gently pulling her away from the camp. Her sister followed fearfully, knowing that even Atlantis wasn't strong enough to resist his strength.

Once out of hearing distance, Shade turned to them both, a small smile on his face. "I figured that this was yours, and knew that you would come back for it." He said to Coral, handing it to her. She took it without a word, remaining silent. "So, why is it that you're afraid of us? I thought you liked me, we've been going out for a long time." said Shade, turning to Atlantis, a slight sadness to his voice.

The two sisters looked at each other, nodding. Together, they explained everything. "Awww.... You don't have to worry about that! He sees me as a rival, and everytime he looks at me I remind him of my mother. He's learned to deal with it, and seeing that you're both girls he definitely won't hurt you." Shade told them reassuringly.

The female hedgehogs glanced at each other nervously, then suddenly jumped behind him as Shadow and Rouge emerged from the bushes. "Ah, Shade. When you take off, you certainly do move fast, even when hindered. So, have you figured out why they fear us yet?" Shadow asked, edging over and trying to get a better look at the girls hiding behind his son. They moved closer to Shade, watching fearfully. "You won't believe it...." Shade said, shaking his head.

After Shadow insisted he wouldn't hurt them, Atlantis and Coral agreed to join them. They stayed near Shade though, still not entirely believing. The young hedgehog didn't mind this, but he wished they would trust his father a bit more. Especially Atlantis, he'd been in love with her for a long time, and if she couldn't get along with his father… Coral helped them to devise a plan, able to keep track of the Black Arm's forces on her high tech computer.

There were too many to just charge in and destroy, so she suggested that they act as assassins, carefully destroying the leaders one by one, for without them, the lower ranks would just scatter and be easier to pick off. They succeeded the first time, getting rid of one of the Morsentith.

Upon the escape however, they encountered trouble. Coral always hid in the darkness, unable to fight, but her mind was always at work. They were nearly out and away from the city, when a series of bombs went off. The aliens had set explosives on a building to bring it down, and Coral, being away from the others, was directly in its path. She saw this, and was about to use her Chaos Control when a mist came about her. The Black Arms were using chemical weapons, and as she inhaled it, the gas knocked her out. Shadow just finished destroying the first Doom Morsentith and flipped a button on his comlink that Coral had given them for instructions on where the next one was.

"Okay, I'm done. Where's the next one?" he said, glancing at the rubble around him and the smelling alien carcass. Not hearing an answer, he tried again. "Coral, give me some directions, you aren't still afraid of me are you?" Shadow asked, beginning to worry. Still no answer, and this time he knew something was wrong. He moved quickly, arriving just as the building was falling. By now the particle gas had disintegrated, and was useless. He spotted her in the path of the falling structure, and rushed over and used his Chaos Control, teleporting both himself and the unconscious girl as the building crashed where they had been moments before.

"I'm sorry I didn't trust your father sooner...." Atlantis said to Shade, as she watched the remainder of the team huddling around the computer, chatting on the next target. The two sisters had given more trust to Shadow after he had saved Coral's life. "Don't worry about it, you weren't the only one. There was a time when even I didn't believe him about anything." He answered as she took his hand and led him away. They walked until they were out of sight from the others, and then sat down next to each other in the grass. "I'm still curious as to why you've chosen me and not my sister." The female said, the crescent mark on her stripe glowing slightly.

Shade put a hand to her face, caressing her cheek. "Why didn't you like my father instead of me? Some things cannot be explained, why I feel love for you and not someone else, how should I answer that?" the black hedgehog said, lowering his hand onto her shoulder. Atlantis moved closer, allowing him to envelope her in an embrace as she kissed him. They lost their balance, and lay in the grass on their sides holding each other close, lips curled together tightly.

The team had since gone to bed, ignoring Coral's worries of wondering why Shade and Atlantis were missing. "Don't worry about them, they probably just wanted some privacy or something to talk." Shadow said, leaning back on a small bush, closing his eyes and relaxing. "Yeah, he's most likely right." Said Rouge as she flew into a tree and went to sleep.

But the small hedgehog knew better, and she certainly wasn't stupid. Why hadn't her sister invited her along, and why Shade, not Shadow or Rouge? She knew that Atlantis had been dating the black hedgehog for a long time, but she never had found out if they really loved each other or not. Like Shadow, she had been kept in the dark about the whole matter. When she was sure that the others were sleeping, she snuck off in search of them. It wasn't long before she found the two. They were sitting in the grass against a log, snuggling against each other and kissing passionately. Both were facing away from her, but in an angle where she could see what the love-struck hedgehogs were doing.

She watched in shock as her sister allowed the larger male to touch her throat with his lips, her hands curling around his waist. Atlantis trembled as she let her shirt slide off her shoulders so Shade could lick her collarbone. After nearly ten minutes of witnessing this, Coral stared as they stopped for a moment, the female resting her head against the black hedgehog's chest, closing her eyes and licking her lips. Coral edged closer so she could hear them speak. "..........We might want to get back to the others, they might be worried." Shade was saying, as he stroked her face lovingly. Atlantis sat up, nodding. "Yeah, if I know, they still don't know about us really." She said with a laugh

They stood up, holding hands. "You're lucky to have a sister that cares about you like that. I never had a sibling, unless you count Omar, he's always acted like a kid, even though he's not related to me. Flick too." The dark hedgehog said with a sigh. "I don't know what I'd do without her, I love her so much. Flick and Omar hunh? Sound like a pair of tricksters to me, what are they like?" Coral heard her sister saying as she began running back to camp. The small girl didn't want them to know she had invaded their privacy, and planned to act like she was sleeping when they arrived. She knew she should be jealous about her sister finding someone before her, but instead felt happy, and was pleased that Atlantis thought so much about her.


	10. Chapter 10

Coral and Atlantis were, for once, alone again. Atlantis looked at her sister sadly, knowing that the time had come to tell her about her fears. "Coral, it is time to leave again." she said. The other gray hedgehog nodded knowingly.

"I could sense this before hand, I have already packed my things, not that I have much. You are right, we cannot stay on this planet, if they found out our true secret, I'm not sure that they would let us live. Shade might, seeing he loves you, but Shadow…" Said Coral, closing her laptop and standing.

They turned and began walking away, it had been many months since the day that they had met Shadow and Rouge. Shade they had known a bit longer, and they had also met Tails the fox a couple weeks back. He had stayed with them, wanting Coral to teach him more about her special computer.

The fox had reassured Shadow that Flick was safe, the little mute was being watched by Cream the rabbit. Together with them, they had all defeated the Black Arms, the aliens leaving the planet and being forced back to their own, though for how long, no one knew.

"Let us leave now, while they sleep. I know Shade is desperately in love with me, and I with him, but how can he understand? They have the blood of the Black Arms race within them, we have their blood and part of their souls. We cannot allow ourselves to grow close to anyone, we would only destroy their lives...." Atlantis sighed.

Shade awoke suddenly, as if someone had called him. He sat up, gasping, something was wrong, he could feel it. The black hedgehog looked at his surroundings, at his comrades that were with him. His father was sleeping relaxed on a small pile of leaves, it was autumn.

He glanced upwards and saw Rouge sleeping in a branch above him, the white bat's wings tucked close to her. Tails the fox was curled up in a small sleeping bag, holding his two tails comfortingly. And Atlantis...... Wait, where was she? She was not where she had been when they had all settled down, and neither was her sister, Coral. Shade pricked his ears, a soft melody coming about on the wind.

The two dark hedgehogs on the hill finished playing their soft penny whistles, waiting for their secret transport. It was a Black Arms' ship, they had stolen it long before even Shade was born, and had used it for riding to other habitable planets, using Chaos Control to teleport it from system to system.

They had known long ago that such planets existed, they had found out by accident though. Years before, on a quest to seek their past in the city of Atlantis, they found the ancient writings in the city telling of planets with such life and intelligence, the maps upon the walls revealing all. It was then that they had found that 2,000 years before hand the Black Arms' precious source of life and jewel, the eighth Chaos Emerald, was lost to them, falling to the earth.

Though they searched desperately, they could not find it, and when the humans came upon it, they used the Dark Jewel for the power of the great village upon the sea; Atlantis. When the city sunk into the ocean, it was again lost.

The ship arrived, landing with ease on the hill. Coral had programmed it to come when it heard the special tune played on their whistles, and only to that. "Give me a moment to check it's computers, then we'll be on our way." Said Coral, climbing into the sleek machine. Atlantis glanced down where her friends were, taking in a last view of the planet. It saddened her that she was leaving them without saying good-bye.

A voice from the woods startled her. "That's an awesome ship, but, its a Black Arms' model, isn't it?" asked Tails, Shade walking up behind him. Atlantis backed away at the harsh look in Shade's eyes, feeling a sense of fear. If he found out she had not told him the entire truth, how angry would he be? In the past battles, she had seen his full wrath unleashed on his enemies, but also his caring love for the weak. He had always loved her, but did he consider hiding the truth lying?

Tails cocked his head, staring in wonderment at the ship. Shade's eyes narrowed suspiciously, his arms folded across his chest. Atlantis noticed he had not woken his father, that was a good sign, but his expression was not, it was one of anger, he knew she had not been telling him something.

"So, what's this about?" he said, his voice dangerously low. Coral poked her head out of the ship's doorway, having heard the other two outside. She looked at them defiantly, determined not to be afraid.

"Ashentha, come. We shall not fear them, we must return to our people." Her sister said, staring at Shade. Perhaps now she would see if the black hedgehog really loved Atlantis.

She refused to look at Tails, he had been a good friend to her, and she would miss him. Even though the Dark Jewel had contained the soul of the Black Arms, it had been converted when with the Atlanteans, and part of them infused with it, thus creating a bond ship.

It was why they had not become evil, and had kept them from destroying others. When the city of Atlantis had sunk into the sea, the inhabitants had left, using the power learned from the emerald to teleport to another world, and another galaxy. Now, Atlantis and Coral wished to find them, knowing that they would be at peace among their own.

Atlantis turned from Shade's piercing gaze, her head hung guiltily. "You wouldn't understand......." she whispered, boarding the ship with her sister. "Hey wait!!" cried Tails, his face shocked. The sisters turned and looked at them, sadness and fear in their faces. Shade's expression softened, he hadn't meant to frighten them.

"Yes, please at least try to explain it, I didn't mean it........" he said, trailing off, staring up at them, his eyes filled with emotion. She couldn't leave, he loved her, and she loved him. How could she, after all they had been through, just get up and disappear? He didn't understand.....

They turned back into the ship, shaking their heads. "You wouldn't......." Coral said, tears in her eyes. Shade had heard enough, he wasn't letting them leave without some answers. He leapt into the ship, following them.

It was small compared to a cruiser, but still large enough for nearly twenty people to fit in it comfortably. Tails used his tails to fly up beside him. "I'm not letting you leave, not without an explanation." He said as gentle and firm as he could be,

"I won't hurt you, no matter what, I swear it." Atlantis closed her eyes, knowing that they were in a corner. "If there is no other way......." she said, feeling her sister's hand tremble in hers. She had been trying to be brave, but was losing the battle. They had never told anyone about their entire past before.

It took nearly a full hour before they had completely finished, and they left no details out, if they were going to tell the truth, then they were telling all of it this time. Shade, who was sitting on the floor next to Tails, watched them in surprise.

"So, this was supposed to make me mad? It doesn't matter where you're from, just what you do in your life. I still love you!" he said, standing and walking over to Atlantis. "Yeah, look at Shadow, the military thought he was evil and hated him, but he turned out O.K.!" Tails nodded, smiling and tilting his head cutely.

Shade acted as if he were oblivious that either Coral or Tails were there, if Atlantis needed to be convinced that he still loved her, it was now. He put a hand to her face and pressed his lips to hers, kissing her slowly and fully. She trembled, tears of joy springing from her eyes, and she embraced him, accepting it. Coral ignored them and walked over to Tails, hugging him.

"I should have known you wouldn't care, Two-Tail. You're such a good friend." She said, the orange fox-boy practically melting with embarrassment. "Awww...." he said when she stopped, blushing. They looked back at Atlantis and Shade, the girl's head buried in his chest sobbing. The black hedgehog held her sympathetically, shushing her.

Shadow stood, having awakened from a sound and dreamless sleep. He scratched his head and noticed that Tails, his son and the girls were all missing. "Hey ROUGE!!" he yelled, as to awaken her. She dropped down beside him, yawning and looking at him angrily. "What?!" the bat said, apparently annoyed. "Have you seen the others?" he asked. "Nope, but since I'm awake, I suppose you want to go looking for them?!" she said.

The group turned as they heard Shadow yelling faintly. "Shade, Tails, and girls, where'd you all go?! If you went to IHOP to bring back breakfast I won't complain, but if not.......!!!!" they heard him from far off. There was silence for a moment, than another outburst, this one coming from just outside the ship.

"WHAT THE HELL?!! THIS IS A BLACK ARMS SHIP!!! AND I THOUGHT THEY GAVE UP!!!" he said, jumping inside. Shadow stared at them for a moment, shocked. Shade was holding Atlantis in his arms, her face red from crying. Tails and Coral gave him annoyed looks, than started laughing as Rouge popped up.

"What's so freakin' funny?!" She said, glaring. "Will someone please tell me what's going on here?!" Shadow yawned, still not entirely awake.

Atlantis and Coral related to Shadow and Rouge their past, still frightened but less so with Shade there. Afterwards, they stared at them, Coral sitting next to the fox with his tails on her lap, and Atlantis next to Shade, an arm around her shoulders. Rouge turned and looked at her dark companion.

"What will it take to get them not to be afraid of you? Man, they're paranoid every time you just glance at them!" she said with a sigh.

Shadow's ears drooped, it was one thing having people hate you and want to murder you, but to be terrified of you....... "Coral, Atlantis, I don't care where you come from. Look at me, to the humans I was a monster, now, most of them seem to like me, it wouldn't make sense to hate you. I actually enjoy being around you two, knowing that you understand what it's like not to be a normal being." He said, closing his eyes and shaking his head.

"Yeah, we love.......!" Tails began, but suddenly interrupted by the ship bucking off the ground. "WHOA!! What's going on?!" he yelled, tripping over his tails in an attempt to stand. "We didn't tell it to take off, what the?!" cried Coral as she struggled over the ship's computer.

She made it to the controls and gasped. "It's the Black Arms, they've finally realized this thing was in our hands......... They've programmed it to return!" she said, working frantically to override the system.

The rest of the team stared out the window, watching as the earth seemed to sink further below them as they entered the blackness of space. They passed the ARK, the ship gaining speed and moving faster. Atlantis trembled in Shade's arms, the stars beginning to fly by.

"We're definitely out of the solar system by now......" she said, fear in her voice. It was one thing if Shadow and Shade knew what she and her sister were, but if the Black Arms found out.......... She couldn't even imagine the tortures they would put them through in an attempt to restore the emerald.

Thinking about this more, she closed her eyes and trembled harder. The darker male felt this change in her, and tightened his arms around her as she buried her face into his chest again. He knew what she was thinking, what else could disturb her so badly?

"I won't let them touch you, if they do, it will be over my dead body." He whispered in her ear. She looked up at him, her eyes filled with love and appreciation.

"YES! I've overridden it! We're far from earth of course, but we aren't moving towards the dark alien's planet anymore." Coral said, collapsing in a chair.

"Well, that's a relief." Rouge muttered, pushing Shadow off of her. The black hedgehog had fallen on her in the chaos that had ensued. He glared at her. "No need to be so rough with me!" Shadow told her as he stood up.

Tails walked over to one of his bags and began looking in it. "I don't know if now's the right time, but I wanna give you this before something else happens...." he said, putting a small box on her lap with holes in it. "What is it?" she asked completely bewildered. The lid to the box popped open without warning, and a small, hero-type water Chao stuck its head out.

"CHAO, CHAO!!" it said, bouncing up and hugging her. "Oh my gawsh!!! It's sooooooo cute Tails!!!" said Coral, snuggling it. The fox-boy blushed and looked at his feet, chuckling. They played with it, the little Chao making cuddly happy noises. Rouge chuckled as the chao hugged Coral's computer, thinking it was a toy. Shadow smiled at them, then turned to look at Shade and Atlantis.

They were standing a bit farther off, towards the back of the ship, slightly hidden from sight. He tilted his head to get a better look at his son, who was concealed in the darkness. Atlantis was wrapped around him, and he was kissing her hungrily. Unaware of them being watched, she pressed herself to Shade, letting him caress her as they kissed.

He stroked her face with one hand, and held her to him with his other hand on her waist. She felt protected when the powerful hedgehog held her, and it soothed her fears. Shadow turned, remembering when he and Sheeva had done things like that. He closed his eyes, deep in thought, the memory of her lips on his in his mind. This time, I won't allow tragedy to strike us again, this time, I'll be ready, he thought.

"We don't have much of a choice, if we stay in space, we'll run out of fuel, oxygen, and food." Coral said, addressing the group. They had been drifting near the Black Arms' planet, unable to escape the magnetic pull of the planet's core. The alien race had also set off some kind of wave beam, making Chaos Control impossible.

"There is only one option then, we must go down to their planet and find some sort of way out of this mess. Perhaps steal a more powerful ship." Said Shade, looking at Atlantis, who was standing next to him. She nodded fearfully, "Yes, but we should be careful. They mustn't find out what we are." Shadow closed his eyes, knowing that this was an extremely dangerous situation.

"It is decided then, we shall maneuver to the planet's surface. Once there, we will abandon it, and search for something else." He said. Rouge snorted, apparently believing that this could be a mistake.

"I have a question though, why did Coral call you Ashentha before?" asked Shade. Atlantis sighed. "That's my name in Atlantean." She replied.

To everyone's shock, they landed without any disruption whatsoever. Obviously the Black Arms did not know who was aboard their ship. Even so, when they landed in the desert-like terrain, Shadow could sense that this planet was different. Tails scanned the planet surface, but was unable to locate any kind of cities at all. The team left the ship to itself, wandering and looking for signs of intelligent life anywhere.

They received quite a shock not too long later. It was Chug who found it, the chao's new name given for the way it ate and drank all its food. The little creature curiously explored a hole, and smelling a foul, unknown odor, it squeaked unhappily.

The hole was an underground vent, and as they soon found out, a vent to the underground realm of the Black Arms. The dark alien race were like ants, they thrived in the soil, carving out holes and large caverns for themselves. Even the flying creatures of their race lived below the surface, gliding in the tunnels of heat vents throughout the planet.

Upon arriving in the complex cities, the group immediately became more nervous. Though it was underground, it wasn't dark, and the tunnels and such were not small. The numerous Black Bulls easily clambered through them, still leaving room for ships and other machinery of the such to pass.

After hours and hours of sneaking around, Shadow decided it was time for them to find somewhere to rest. He could see the group becoming more and more tired, but they kept their eyes open for the fear of the Black Arms.

"In here for a moment, it looks small." He said, pointing to a small crevice in the wall. The room they entered was dark, except for the lights illuminating the experimental tubes implanted in the walls. They all gasped at the sight, walking forward to get a closer look.

"This........ Can't be......." said Rouge, glancing at the forms inside. The creatures inside were various animals from earth, but they were strange, red and black, with markings almost identical to Shade and Shadow.

Shadow walked up to one of the tubes containing a hedgehog, nearly a duplicate of himself except for the fact that it had a black circle emblazoned into it's red forehead stripe and a rougher appearance. He pressed a hand to the glass and peered at the creature. It was hooked up to a machine on the outside, dozens of needles piercing its body.

Yet, it still breathed in its sleeping state, unaware of its pain. Or was it? Shadow noticed that the hedgehog's body twitched every other moment or so, as if it had grown used to the torture, but still felt it. He himself had been created in a tube like this, but he was certain that the professor had not done this horrid crime, this sort of treatment was unthinkable, Shadow thought.

"They're all sleeping........ But, how could they?" whispered Tails, terrified at the sight. Shadow turned back around and looked at Shade, who was also staring into one of the tubes. This isn't right, he thought, these foul monsters are torturing these animals!

"We're going to let them loose." Said Shadow, everyone turning and looking at him. "Right." His son said, almost immediately. "That looks like a control panel over there! Let's work on it, Coral!" Tails said, running over to a small machine. Within a few minutes, the combined work of the two paid off, and a hissing sound issued from the machinery of the room.

The tubes drained of the liquid, and the needles within the creatures suddenly withdrew back into the walls. Shadow walked over and forced one of the tubes open, the same one with the hedgehog with the circle. The weak creature awoke and fell to the floor, looking at him and trembling fearfully.

"Watchoo want?" he asked as Shade helped him stand. He quivered for another moment, then watched puzzled as they began releasing the others.

Once all of the imprisoned animals had been released, Shadow and the team took a break. It had been difficult to free all of them, there had been over two hundred, and all had to have their pods forced open. The group of experiments looked at each other in confusion, they all were wearing the same uniforms, long black robes that covered their entire bodies, with matching black hover boots and gloves. "Whats iz dis?" asked a small echidna, staring around nervously.

A sly-looking cat stood up, having been the second one that had been rescued. "Dis doen't lookin like an test. Whos are yous!?" she demanded of Shadow. The dark hedgehog stood up, having regained his stature.

"You were imprisoned by the Black Arms, so we freed you. Do you remember anything, where you came from?" said Shadow. A penguin, different from the rest because it was blue, came up. "Weza alwayz been here, diz is wherz we waz made!" she said. Shadow immediately realized that the penguin and the cat where the leaders of this kind, as they were the only ones that sounded forceful, and they had hats added their uniforms.

Shade stepped up with Atlantis. "Well, what they were doing to you all wasn't right! Take it from us, we know, we underwent a similar experience." He said, looking at his father. Shadow nodded, his son understood. "Youz meens wez not suppozed to hava lotza pain?" said the penguin.

"No. Um.... Do you all have names or something?" Tails piped up, scratching his head. "IZA!! Howz stupidz ov usz!" said the black and red cat, smacking herself. One by one the animals introduced themselves, the cat and penguin going last.

"I'mz Articzlar, the onlyz bluez wrath in diz plaze!" the blue bird said. The black cat leaped up, disappearing into the darkness. They heard her voice from everywhere, but were unable to spot her. "I'z Crimzone, powerz iz not mez, but you shallz never catcha mez!"

She reappeared just in front of Atlantis, staring at her. "Youz is not normalz.......... Youz are partz something elsez........" Crimzone said, eyeing her and Coral suspiciously. Shade stepped up next to the trembling girl, putting an arm around her.

"None of us is normal, Crimzone. We all have something special about us." He said, staring at the black cat. Crimzone backed off, still not convinced. "I'z stillz sez shez is differents.......... Wellz, now whatz is wez do?" she asked Articzlar, completely ignoring Shadow. "Wez takez bigga shipz!! Weza gettin' outtza here!! Deyz stuck herez too!!" the blue penguin said, pointing at Shadow.

Rouge growled, these animals were sassy, a bit too sassy for her liking. "How did you know that?!" she said angrily. "Whyz elsez wouldja be herez?! Da Doomez never lets anyonze of uz walks all overz da placez without lotza gaurdzez!!" said the Shadow-like hedgehog named Darkerz.

"Youza all listenz, weza knowz dis place, wez showz youz da bigga shipz! Da bigga onez da Doomez gots!" said Crimzone, walking up to a door and pushing buttons.

The Black Arms put up a very powerful fight, but were unable to stop the forceful army of animals that they had raised. They used any means of attack, from blasters to swords, from missiles to electric rods. Crimzone staggered as four Arms soldiers forced her down with the electric torturing sticks. Darkerz leapt to her aid, knocking the aliens away from her. "Bangez!!" he said as the black cat got to her feet. "Thezen beasts allez diez whenz I is donez!!" she screeched, attacking furiously.

When they had all finally made it to the hanger where the Black Arms' lead battle cruiser was kept, Articzlar took charge. "Fangez, takez thats weaponz stationz! Darkerz, comez herez, you doez da sniperz weaponz thingz! Drakenz, makez surez dat workez! Shadowz and Shadez, youza takez bigga gunz!" she said, gesturing to Shadow and Shade. They looked at each other, unused to being ordered around.

"Youza gonna helpez or notz?!" the penguin yelled at them. Shade glanced out the window, the Black Arms were bringing out a large ion booster, designed to overload engines. He looked as his father and nodded. "If we're going to get off this stupid planet, we'll have to do what she says." The younger one said.

"Correct." Said Shadow, and they hurried to the Mega-Cannons. Articzlar continued issuing orders, pausing as Crimzone came up to her, breathless. "Zee tractorz beamez is destroyedz!" she gasped. The penguin turned to her, pleased. "Goodez, goez takez a breaks, tellez dat Atlantiz and Coralz to come herez." She said.

The two dark sisters arrived trembling. They both knew that these animals could sense what they where. They had been stared at and watched since they'd met them. They stood before Articzlar fearfully, Shadow, Shade, and the others were all busy and hadn't known about this.

"Don'tz be afraidez. I knowez whatz youz are. Understandez, we cannotz get offa planet withoutez yourz help." she said softly. Atlantis and Coral glanced at each other. "What do we have to do?" asked Atlantis. "Youz havez da powerz of da dark emeraldz. Touch diz panelz, youz will givez da shipz powerz. It makez you weakz, but notz hurtz youz." Articzlar said, stepping aside. The sisters glanced at each other again, nodding.

They had to trust the penguin, the alternative of the Black Arms' experimentation was not appealing. Removing their gloves, they pressed their bare hands to the panel. They felt an overwhelming exhaustion come over them, and they both began to fall in a faint, unable to hold themselves up.

Articzlar rushed forward and held them up, keeping their hands on the sensor. "Allez enginez, full powerz!! Goez now!!!" she yelled.

Atlantis opened her eyes, and saw Shade staring down at her worriedly. "Where are we?" she asked, just barely remembering the past events. "We're in the middle of nowhere in space. Are you alright?" he asked. Atlantis suddenly realized where she was.

Shade was sitting on a small bed, if you could call the strange, soft, purple material a 'bed', and she was lying on it with her head in his lap. He was holding her hand in his, and stroking her head. She saw the fear in his eyes and felt a sudden happiness growing in her. "I'm fine." She said, sitting up. "I'd thought you were........" he began, but trailed off, unable to finish the sentence.

Atlantis looked around, taking in her surroundings. They were in a small room, bare except for a door and the bed they were sitting on. There was no one else there, they were alone. Turning back to Shade, she reached over and began kissing him. He put his hands on her shoulders as she moved closer. The aqua-striped hedgehog pressed herself nearer, letting him return it. She took her hands and put her palms on his chest as he moved his own to her waist.

They continued to kiss passionately, not noticing the door opening a crack. Darkerz peeped in, watching them for a couple moments, then carefully and quietly shut the door again. Justz as Crimzone suspectedz, he thought, Zez havez love forz each otherz. He stalked off, unaware that he himself was also being followed.

Shadow didn't have to look into the room to know what they were doing, but he did need to talk to them, so he knocked politely. In the room, the two hedgehogs had buried their faces into each other's necks, kissing fervently.

Upon hearing the knock, they separated, and Shade stood up. "Who is it?" he asked. Shadow entered, closing the door behind him. He glanced at Atlantis, her face red and blushing from before. "You ought to be more careful. I'm not the first to come by this room to see you." The older hedgehog said, jerking his head to the door. Atlantis cocked her head, curious. "What do you mean?" she asked, deciding to trust him.

Shadow looked at his son, shaking his head. "Darkerz was over here just a moment ago, I was following him. He's spying on us all, in turn, learning about us and then reporting to Articzlar and Crimzone. I've talked with the others, including Coral, and they knew nothing about it." The dark hedgehog said. "I wonder why he's doing that.......... Could it be they aren't sure of how to act, being raised by those black creatures all their lives?" said Shade, wonderingly.

Articzlar nodded at the news that Darkerz had brought her. "Yourz supicousnz was rightez thenz." She said, turning to Crimzone. The black cat purred loudly, pleased with herself. "I'z am a seerz, I knowz many thingz. Goodez workz, Darkerz, you go takez a restz." She said, motioning to the dark hedgehog. He slunk away, always watching anyone near him. He and the cat made an unstoppable team, together they could outwit anyone.

He slipped into an empty room, grateful for a nap, when he suddenly heard a voice behind him. "So, you've been spying on us, hunh?" the white bat behind him said. It was Rouge, not one of their kind, she didn't have their accent. He stared at her, how did she do that? How did she enter without him knowing?

"Whatz youz wantz?" he asked shortly. She swaggered up to him, circling him quickly. Putting her hand under his chin, she brought their faces close together. "Would like to know why you're spying on us, darling." She said, bringing herself closer to him. "Whatchoo meanz?" the black hedgehog asked nervously.

The white bat walked away from him, halting at the door for a moment. "You're not the only spy around here, sweetie. Don't try to hide it." Rouge said over her shoulder. Darkerz watched as she left, suprised that he had been caught.

Crimzone opened her eyes, she had been staring out the window at space when she had seen what had taken place between Darkerz and Rouge. Telling no one of her vision, she walked over to Darkerz's room. He opened the door for her before she knocked, his ears had told him she was there. "Zo, youz has seen itz?" he said glumly.

"Yez, but youz not bez mad. Shez a spiez, but shez not been spiezing, but shez watching youz." The cat said. The dark hedgehog nodded, following her out. They were joined by Shadow, Shade, Tails, Rouge, Atlantis and Coral. He avoided their eyes, knowing that they must have figured it out by now. "Wez will go to ziz Earthz placez, wez shallz see whatz da planetz like. If itz goodz, wez will all livez dare. I see humanz in myz visionz, I hopinz that theyz leavez us alone." Crimzone continued, knowing of the group behind her.


	11. Chapter 11

"I still don't know if you'll be able to hide from the Commander, what about when you need supplies and stuff?" asked Shade, standing in the field that Articzlar had chosen for a landing spot. The robed blue penguin stopped making her calculations on her datapad and looked at him. "We weren'tz only taught howz to fight, youz knowz! We can farm and stuffz too, we wouldn't needz to goez to the city that muchez." She said, nodding to Crimzone as the seer walked up.

"Have you seenz Darkerz?! He isn't with the otherz, and thatz white batz missing too!" the black and red cat asked. Shadow was walking past the threesome, and upon hearing this he stopped in his tracks. "Rouge AND Darkerz are missing? Oh, great....." he muttered sarcastically. Shade and Articzlar stared at him in confusion, but Crimzone nodded.

"Maybez it's because theyz both are spiez!" she said, rolling her eyes. "Ohhhhhh...... I get it. Would you like me to get them?" asked Shade, realization dawning in the penguin's eyes as well. "Yesz, I needz Darkerz to scanz this cave and seez how big it's isz. We want to usez for a basez." Sighed Articzlar, pointing at a large cave at the base of the snowy white mountains.

Completely unaware that the conversation about them was taking place, Darkerz and Rouge were off in the woods not a mile away. They were sitting on a log and kissing each other desperately. The bat had her body pressed against the hedgehogs, her hands on the sides of his face. They had been seeing each other secretly ever since their second meeting, and were deeply in love.

Darkerz pulled away for a couple moments to catch his breath, his arms still wrapped tightly around Rouge's back. "You know, we've been gone for a while, they might come looking for us." She told him, taking a hand off his face to touch the black circle emblazoned on his red head stripe. It was the only thing that separated him from having the same appearance as Shadow, even though their personalities were quite different. "Butz, could theyz find usez if theyz even triedz?" he asked. The white bat seemed to think for a moment, then shook her head. The black hedgehog sighed as she began kissing him again, intoxicated at the feeling of her lips touching his own.

The pair were correct, they had chosen a well hidden spot, and Shade was unable to find them. When he returned alone, Shadow offered to scout the cave for the penguin. "If I know Rouge, they aren't going to back for a long while, and it would be risky to wait out in the open with everyone." He told them. Articzlar nodded and watched as he entered the cave.

The opening itself was small, enough for maybe two people to enter, and it was covered with foliage. But when the hedgehog found himself inside, he realized that the interior was huge. It took him nearly an hour to explore the entire thing, even with his superspeed. The blue penguin had chosen a good first base, thought Shadow as he left it.

"It's big enough for pretty much anything you want, there's even an area I couldn't check out, somesort of underwater tunnel in a lake in there." He told her. Unlike most hedgehog's, he and his son could swim, supposedly because they were ultimate lifeforms. She nodded and smiled happily as she turned to signal to the others that it was all right to enter.

It was nearly nightfall, and Shadow walked over to the Black Arms Ship that they had stolen looking for his son. He found Shade onboard, standing with Atlantis on the empty bridge. The two hedgehogs were holding each other, and even though they weren't kissing, Shadow didn't walk in and bother them, as they had obviously chosen this spot for some privacy. Atlantis looked like she might have been crying again, and no doubt his son was comforting her. Instead he wondered what Coral and Tails were doing.

He walked down some hallways and on the other end of the huge fighter ship, he saw the hedgehog and the fox playing with their chao, Chug. "We're trying to get him to wear this bandana!" the pair had told him before he left. Shadow left the ship to see the moon in full glow, a great round circle. "Alone again." he sighed, remembering how so many years ago Sheeva had given him company. He wiped away a tear and wondered when Darkerz and Rouge were returning.

In that moment the two lovestruck creatures were heading back towards the ship, talking as they went. "You know you look a lot like Shadow? But even so, you're like, totally different, I've known him for years, and he isn't anything like you!" Rouge told him, holding his hand. His eyes did not meet hers when he answered. "I knowz." He said.

She stopped walking when he said this, suspicious. "What are you not telling us? I know that you, Articzlar and Crimzone are hiding something, what is it?" she asked, taking her hand and moving his head so that he was forced to look her in the eyes. She saw fear there, as if he were ashamed to reveal something.

He turned away and paused. "Rougez, we were createdz for the solez purpose to conquer, butz I had a more specific reasonz for being madez." The black hedgehog became silent for a couple minutes, until the bat walked up and put her arms around him. "Tell me." She said as he continued to stare at the stars.

I heardz the Doomez talking aboutz me. They wantedz me to murderz Shadow. They calledz him the 'Abomination' of their racez, and hatesz himz. I stayz away fromz himz, if he foundez out, hez might attackz me whenz I not lookingz." The black hedgehog finished, his body trembling.

Rouge hugged him to her with a sad sigh. "Darkerz, he wouldn't do that. Look at the Commander that lived aboard the Ark when Shadow was created, he hates Shadow. He's tried to kill him many times, but because of his promise to Maria, he only flees from the government, rarely does he fight back. There was one time before Shade was even born, before he had ever met Sheeva, that GUN had him surrounded. Rather than fighting and killing them in order to save his own life, he turned his gun on himself, and if I hadn't been there to stop him, he would have committed suicide in preference to being taken alive, not knowing what kind of experiments they would have tried to carry out on him." Rouge explained.

Darkerz seemed less frightened after she said this, becoming a bit more relaxed at hearing that Shadow did not enjoy killing for no reason. Rouge reached up and touched her lips to his again, pressing herself to him so suddenly that Darkerz lost his balance and fell over.

The bat fell with him, and they hesitated for a minute, the hedgehog lying in the grass with the girl on top of him. They stared into each others eyes for a moment, then began kissing fiercely. It was nearly ten minutes before they stopped, and then they sat up, gasping for breath.

"Hmph. After all these years of strange missions and adventures and hanging around Shadow and Shade, I finally find someone I love, and I never would have dreamed it would be you. You look so much like them but are yet so different, I guess that goes to prove that everyone's got something special about them, no matter how much they look like someone else!" she said with a smile. Darkerz grinned back at her, filled with happiness.

Shadow was still standing outside, just in-between the Black Arms' ship and the Base Cavern, as Crimzone and Articzlar had decided to call it. As he stared at the moon, he heard someone coming up behind him. He turned and saw a dark black and purple hedgehog walking up, holding a small bundle.

"Nice nightz, hunh?" she said. Shadow nodded, wondering why she was even out at this hour. "I askingz people namez ideas for babyz. What youz think?" she said, showing him the small bundle was actually a child, looking just a couple days old. Shadow blinked in suprise, then remembered that the journey itself from the Black Arms' planet had taken about two months, plenty of time for a hedgehog to have a child. Articzlar had not wanted to use the ships hyperengine too much, fearing the aliens would detect it if used extensively.

He realized that the little one was girl, with unique, bright golden colored fur. Shadow stared at her, sudden memories of his days with Maria coming to him, she had the same color hair as the baby. The mother saw him looking, and seeing the strange emotion in his eyes, knew that he felt deeply for the small one. "Wantz to hold herz?" she asked, holding the babe out to him.

Shadow took the child carefully, it had been years since he had held anything so tender and delicate. The girl opened her eyes and they stared into each others eyes for what seemed an eternity, but in reality was only a couple minutes. Handing her back to her mother, Shadow turned back and looked up at the moon. "Maria." He said before becoming silent once more. The female hedgehog walked off with the child, her decision made.

The next morning, Shade awoke to the ground shaking beneath him. His father jumped out of the bed next to his, and they rushed out of the room together. Their fears were true, the GUN forces had found them. But the commander was not a fool. Because his men wouldn't follow his orders to kill Shadow, he was using robots and mech beings to attack, and the explosion that the two hedgehogs had felt was the other side of the ship being blown to pieces.

The structure that they had been standing on heaved, unable to contain its wait with half of the landing gear destroyed. Leaping off, the father and son separated, moving away to defend the base. Shadow stopped however, hearing a faint crying coming from the flames behind him. He leapt into them and picked up a large, heavy piece of metal, grunting as he flipped it over. Underneath was the female hedgehog he had seen last night with her child, she had been crushed by the heavy weight of the machinery, but the child in her arms was unharmed.

As Shadow reached down, he saw her dying eyes flicker open as he put his arms around the little one to take her. "She...... is...... Maria........" she said before closing her eyes for the last time. The dark hedgehog put his hand to her face and felt that she was gone, and looking at the tiny girl in his arms, he dashed away to take her to safety.

Shade on the other hand, had taken out the attack robots and gone to look for Atlantis. Coral and Tails were safe, they had been staying in the cave, and it was the ship that was attacked. He found her with the remains of a huge GUN robot trapping her lower body from the waist down. He pulled it off and helped her to her feet.

"Are you alright?" he asked as she put her arms around him in a hug. Then, she moved forward and kissed him firmly. "Yes, I'm fine, but I don't think Shadow is." She said, pointing over to the woods nearby. "What do you mean?!" the black hedgehog said fearfully. "I don't think he's hurt physically, but I saw him........" At this, Shade grabbed her arm and pulled her along with him as he raced towards the forest.

Shadow heard his son coming, and turned as he came running up, the small child still in his arms. "Father, what's................." Shade stopped, stunned at the sight of the golden-furred child. "She........ she just....... died.............. Maria..........." Shadow stuttered, his eyes filled with tears.

Suddenly, Shade understood. The mother of this child died as his father was saving her, and not only did it remind him of Sheeva's death, because it had been the government that caused it, it brought back memories of Maria as well. He had never seen his father this way, so emotional, except for once…

It was not long before Shadow talked with Articzlar and Crimzone about the little one. They told him that the child's father had also been killed in the attack, before even the mother was. The blue penguin moved to take the little one from him, but the red and black cat stopped her. "The child must stayz with Shadowz. I see it, she is differentz from even usez, she belongs withz him." She said, ending the discussion.

Shadow was shocked that they wanted him to take care of the small baby, it had been so long since he had done so, and he hoped he would remember how. "So......... What is her name?" Shade asked him as his friends huddled around him as he fed her a bottle. She sucked on it hungrily, her feeble arms trying to grip it. The dark hedgehog holding her sighed before he answered. "Maria." He said. Maria finished suckling it, and closed her blue eyes to go to sleep in contentment.

Shadow felt now that he was no longer alone, caring for the child. He figured that even though he wasn't her father, but her guardian, there was little difference. He cared for her as if she were his own, never letting her out of his sight, even when she went to take naps, he held her, not daring to leave her alone for even a few minutes. Just as he had done with Shade.

The GUN forces had not returned, but he knew that the commander was not one to just retreat and give up. The enemy would return, he knew it, once they had regrouped and gathered more weapons, the drones and battle robots would be back. Shadow was correct, for it was not but a few days later when they did show up again, this time in the middle of the night.

The black hedgehog was lying on the ground at the edge of the forest, his back to a large tree trunk. He had covered Maria and himself with a small blanket, the tiny hedgehog snuggled against his chest fur and sleeping deeply. Shadow himself was nearly asleep when he heard noises coming close. His eyes shot open as a squad of living GUN troops surrounded them, their new specialized guns loaded with tranquilizers and nets.

The commander had sworn that if the troops chose to obey, he would have his enemy captured alive. The troops wouldn't kill Shadow, but some of them didn't mind capturing him for a little extra money. Shadow thought for a moment, then shifted the blanket slightly, attempting to keep Maria hidden from their view. "Make it easy and surrender, the Commander has given his word that you will not be harmed." The guard leader said, nervously shifting the heavy gun on his shoulder.

The black hedgehog knew he had no choice, if it had been just him, he would have fought, but he didn't want to risk the little one being harmed in the struggle. He stood, keeping the blanket around himself and making sure that they couldn't see the golden child in his arms. "Fine. I'll go with you quietly, but I will not be restrained in any way." He said.

They nodded, and motioned for him to follow, keeping their tranquilizer guns trained on him. Shadow was suprised when he realized that the Commander had not attacked the others, instead he had only come for Shadow, and Shade. The black hedgehog's eyes went wide as he saw his son lying unconscious in a cage guarded with lasers. They must have sent two groups separately, and Shade had obviously not given in quietly.

They took Shadow through the camp, stopping in front of the Commander. The hundreds of troops watched tensely as he addressed the hedgehog that he loathed. "Show us that you are unarmed." He said, his face hard. Shadow could feel the tiny child's heart beating while she slept, and knew that he had to keep her concealed as long as possible. He shook his head and didn't say anything. At this, the Commander called forward a soldier with a tranquilizer gun. "Do it, or we'll make sure in our own way."

The hedgehog knew he was in a corner, and had no choice again. It was better for him to reveal Maria while he was alert, and not when he was being drugged by the serum, and there was also the chance that the dart would hit her instead of him. If he had to run, he wanted to be awake for it. The blanket dropped from around him, and a gasp arose in the army when they saw her.

"So, that's why you surrendered. Take her." Said the Commander, signaling to the guard. Shadow took a step backwards, holding her protectively. "Try it and I will break your neck!!" he said, bringing the soldier to a fearful halt. Shadow and the Commander glared at each other for a couple moments, the tension cackling in the air. The hedgehog's fur was on standing on end, and a growl was beginning to rise from deep in his chest. "Restrain him like the other, then report back."

Shadow allowed himself to be led to a cage similar to Shade's, and kept his eyes open in case they tried something funny as they locked him in. He could feel his rage building, but pushed it down. Defying them would bring nothing now, and could be harm to Maria.

The hedgehog knew he would have to accept this for now, no matter how degrading and humiliating it was. A couple minutes later, the soldiers returned. Using a crane, they lifted the cage onto a small everyday truck. It was so large and heavy Shadow realized, that they couldn't lift it themselves. The bright lights of the GUN camp were blotted out as they threw a heavy brown tarp over him and fastened the cage down.

How clever, he thought, if anyone comes looking for me, it'll be a GUN vehicle they'll be searching for, not an unmarked pickup truck with a covered box in it. Leaning against the cage bars, he sighed as Maria woke up. She whimpered and he held her closer, giving her comfort.

The small child felt the beating of his heart against her body and relaxed, feeling reassured and protected. Putting a hand in her mouth, she stared up at him and made a soft sound that sounded like a coo. Shadow frowned at this. She was hungry, and he didn't have anything to give her. Maria continued sucking on her hand as helpless tears fell from his eyes. He could only remember feeling this way a few times in his life. The moment he saw Maria the human dying, and when his love had been killed.

Shadow looked up as someone lifted a flap of the tarp, a soldier looking in at them. The uniformed man glanced sideways to see if he was being watched, then slipped a small carton of milk through the laser bars of the cage. "Shhhhh! Don't want anyone to know!" the guard whispered, disappearing as suddenly as he had came. The black hedgehog wiped the tears from his face as he picked up the carton, smiling at the remembrance that not all humans seemed as heartless as they looked.

The ride was bumpy and long, and the wind ripped at the tarp as the truck sped toward it's destination, but it remained in place firmly, keeping the inside of the cage dark. Maria was silent during the entire trip, her trusting eyes blinking up at her guardian. Shadow had managed to keep the blanket and had wrapped her in it for extra warmth.

He had fallen asleep shortly after the ride began, but not before taking the time to pull the brambles out of his feet. When the troops had first captured him, he hadn't had his shoes or his gloves on, having been sleeping. They hadn't given him time to pick them up off the ground, and if he had tried they might have shot him. After a couple hours, she too fell asleep, her body rising and falling with his breathing as he held her to his chest.

The black hedgehog was awakened by the truck coming to a jerking halt. He fell over in the cage, still holding Maria. The Commander had hoped for this, catching him off his guard, the cage opening and someone slipping a heavy chain around Shadow's neck. It tightened mercilessly as the security of his small prison was completely shut down and he was dragged out of the truck.

He fought violently as he felt hands reaching to take Maria from him, biting, punching and kicking with all his strength. They backed off, all but the one holding the chain on his neck. Shadow glanced around and realized that he was no longer in the company of the GUN soldiers. The men surrounding him wore laboratory coats, and he trembled as he saw that this was a government laboratory. No, not this again, he thought frantically. The black hedgehog had had enough when he had been imprisoned by Bujin.

The scientist with his chain began dragging him inside, the heavy metal digging into his throat and choking him as he was forced to follow. "Get those rods ready, this one's even worse than the last!" he yelled. Shadow watched, terrified as more of the men in lab-coats surrounded them, holding long sticks that looked like cattle prods. "........I....... won't....... fight.......!" he choked out, fearing that if he tried to pull the chain on his neck loose that they would snatch Maria from him.

When he said this, they backed off a little, but not much, and the scientist holding the chain allowed it to slack, just enough so that he could breath more easily. Shadow finally got a look at the man's face, grayed hair and wrinkles meant this human was older in age. There was something about him though… If only I could look at his eyes, he thought, staring at the scientist's goggles. "Alright, but one false move and you'll regret it. Those are some high powered rods, the Commander ordered us to use them specifically for you." the man said, giving the chain a tug for him to walk forward.

Shadow kept his arms around the little one that was trembling as he held her, glancing around nervously as they took him inside and put him in yet another cell. It was bigger than his last, with a small plate of food and some water. They pulled out another tranquilizer and began approaching him slowly.

They want to take the chain off my neck, he thought. "No, don't! I won't fight, as long as you leave the little one alone, I'll do anything you want!" he said as they raised the gun, attempting to make himself look harmless and afraid for Maria's sake. The first scientist that had held his chain put a hand on the machine, lowering it. "Wait." He told them, stepping forward. Staring at Shadow through his glasses, the man reached down and carefully undid the chain, backing away when he was finished. "All right, let's go." He said, turning to lock the door behind him.

"Uh, just a second!" Shadow said before he walked away. The scientist looked at him questioningly. "Could I have some milk for her, please?" the hedgehog asked him timidly. He knew the best way to get away was to play on them, make them think that he was weak and get them to trust him. Then he could find a way to escape, and if they ever tried to take Maria from him, he would be over his dead body. The man nodded, then walked off.

Shadow sniffed the plate of mushed food that smelled foul, and then he glared at the water bottle that he guessed he was supposed to drink from. Not bothering with either, he decided he'd rather starve then allow himself to be treated like a dumb animal. No doubt the Commander told them to treat him like this.

It wasn't long before Shadow learned that Shade was being kept on the other side of the complex, and from the sound of it, he wasn't cooperating. At first, the scientist's left him alone for a couple days, coming by to check on him and bring him food, water, and something for Maria. He went without though, and it seemed to intrigue the scientists that he wouldn't eat or drink, and the hedgehog could feel himself growing slowly weaker.

He listened in on their conversations, and they always seemed to be comparing him to the other black hedgehog that was at the lab. The humans couldn't figure out where Shade's other half of genes and chromozones had come from, they didn't even consider the fact that Shadow could have loved. They thought this hedgehog was supposed to be a perfect clone, but it had defects.

They wondered why the two looked so much alike but acted so different. One was timid and submissive, but the other was loud and aggressive. Shadow knew that his son had no intention of going down without a fight, and feared for his safety.

On the third morning, five of the scientists came up to his cage, wearing gloves and holding the tranquilizer gun again. Shadow didn't like the look of it, they were all wearing goggles, and toting a metal stretcher on wheels. He should have known there would have been a consequence for not eating or drinking. Shrinking to the back of his cage, he held Maria to him protectively.

"NO!" he said as they entered, aiming the gun at him. "Don't resist, it will be painless. We aren't going to kill you. Just give us the little one." The lead man said. "Never! You'll never get her from me while I live!" the hedgehog said as they advanced. "We won't harm her, and we'll return her to you when we're finished. Don't make us do this the hard way!" he warned.

"What do you want from me?! As if you humans haven't done enough to me, now you want to experiment on my body?! I was entrusted with Maria and I'll protect her as long as I have life in me, you'll have to kill me first!" Shadow said, showing his teeth menacingly.

The man suddenly stopped, his hand on the trigger. "What did you call her?" he asked, his voice sounding suprised. Shadow blinked, who was this man? It was the same one from the first day, the old one who had taken the risk of removing his chain by hand. "Maria." The dark hedgehog said. The elder scientist turned and gave the others a sort of hand signal, and they left, leaving the three alone.

The scientist lifted up the goggles he had been wearing since Shadow had first seen him, and the hedgehog gasped in shock, finally recognizing the eyes. "Prof.....?" he began.

"Professor Roberts. I was not on the Ark when it was shut down. I had been transferred just days before the military came to shut it down, and only heard that there was a tragic accident onboard. I had wondered what become of you, as I was only a young boy genius in training at the time. Not long ago I heard the Commander talking about you, you see, after he found out that I had been on the Ark also, he kept me as his lead scientist, believing that I shared his views and thoughts. He had you sent here because of me, in thinking that I would hate you and treat you badly." The scientist began explaining, resting the gun against the wall.

"Yeah well it looks like he was right, with you wanting to experi......!" "I wasn't going to experiment on you, Shadow. As you should remember, Professor Gerald gave you many health checks when you were with him, and not knowing what to expect, it was my opinion that you should be restrained. You haven't eaten or even drank in days, and although you are the ultimate lifeform, you do need those things eventually." Roberts interrupted him.

A pause went throught the room as the hedgehog thought for a moment. "So, what have you done to Shade?" he asked. Roberts gave him a puzzled look. "The other black hedgehog that looks like me." Shadow finished. The man shook his head sadly.

"We had to knock him out to do anything to him. Ran a couple bloodtests and made sure that the tranquilizers weren't having a negative affect on him. We've had to pump so much into him to make sure he's fully knocked out that we were afraid that it might be too much of an overdose. The level's all right now, but if he keeps it up it could poison him, and we have to protect ourselves. He tried to strangle me when he first got here, and he nearly succeeded!" the man sighed before continuing.

" And quite like you, he won't take anything willingly, so when he's knocked out, we I.V. him. He has some of your DNA, but also someone else's, so I'm supposing that this wasn't the first time you've been in a laboratory, and he was the end result of..........." Shadow interrupted, slightly smug about the fact that they hadn't even thought of the possibility. "No, he isn't just some random experiment. He's my son. Let me talk to him, I can get him to be less resilient." The hedgehog said, pleased that Maria had fallen asleep in his arms again.

The Professor stared at him for a moment, slightly abashed. "If he's your.......... Then is that your daughter?!" Roberts asked. Shadow stroked the golden hedgehog's face and closed his eyes. "Now she is. She has no one else. The attack by the Commander killed her parents, but not before they named her. Maria is my little one now." He said, not looking up, still gazing at her.

Roberts was silent for a couple minutes, then smiled as he spoke. "I can't just let you run around the lab, though I wish I could. The least that can be done is to have you on a chained leash whenever you want to be out. The Commander still hates you, but I see now that it really is him who should be locked up. Would you like to see your son now, I still have to follow orders and do the health check on you anyway."

Shadow allowed the professor to put a metal ring around his neck and attach it to a chained leash, even though it felt highly degrading. It wasn't tight, but it wasn't loose either, and he would shift it whenever it became too uncomfortable.

As he followed Roberts, the scientist explained more. "I'll find you a nicer room, something with a bed in it, and you can fix it however you like. And I'll just tell the Commander that you wouldn't eat anything unless it was normal food, that should work. Don't worry about the others though, the staff here will treat you respectfully, they'll understand. All of us are close friends, so they'll believe me when I tell them you're not dangerous. We'll just have to be careful and make sure we follow regulations, keeping you restrained in the hallways and things like that. And we'll have to see about getting playthings for Maria." He said with a wink.

They continued on, and they came to a halt before turning a particular corner. "Now, please keep in mind that he did this to himself, we haven't been beating him, or anything of the sort. He injures himself when he gets disoriented from the tranqs'." The Professor said, waiting for Shadow to nod before they continued.

Shadow gasped at the sight. Shade was lying in a corner of his secured room, nursing bruises and cuts on his face. "Open the door please." Shadow said, not moving his gaze. Roberts hesitated for a moment, then unlocked it. Shade shot up, preparing to make a run for it. "Shade, stop! Before you do anything, listen to me first." His father said, still holding Maria.

After the explanation, Shade agreed to behave himself, but Shadow was not angry with him. "You only did what I surely would have done if I had not feared for Maria." His father had told him. "Is it possible that we can stay together?" Shadow asked Roberts.

"Unfortunately no. The Commander said specifically that you had to be in separate rooms, as he told me to make every attempt to take Maria from you, but as you can see I'll just tell him that it wasn't possible, and that she wouldn't eat without you and it would have meant her death." The man said, attaching a leash to a disgruntled Shade.

"How long are we going to be here?" he asked, attempting to rub his neck under his collar. The scientist was silent for a moment, then shook his head. "The Commander......." he began. "Let me guess," Shadow interrupted, "the Commander wants us here for as long as we are alive, hoping that torture and lack of freedom will cause us to go insane so he can have an excuse to kill us?" Roberts nodded.

"Hit it on the head, Shadow. He doesn't want you to ever leave." He said. "But........ I can't stay here forever! I........ Atlantis......... I just can't!!" Shade said, looking mournful. "I wouldn't mind staying here actually. It would mean that Maria would be safe. But Shade cannot. He has another life, he.......... He just can't live her forever, because he WILL go insane!" Shadow admitted.

Professor Roberts looked at them with pity. "I can't let you go, I'm sorry." He said, but gave Shadow a long look of rebellious understanding before winking. Then he nodded toward a wall, where Shadow saw a small recording machine jacked into the wall. "Those are all over the place, you can't escape them, at least they aren't watching us, those nasty little bugs just seem to infest the lab." The professor said, acting as if he were speaking about insects, but the two dark hedgehogs knew he was talking about cameras and such. They nodded, understanding. The professor was going to help Shade escape, but it would be risky.

The next day, an accident occurred, or so it seemed. The lab-workers had shot Shade with a tranquilizer to knock him out, but had made an error in the dosage. Thinking he was out cold, they unlocked the door, and he escaped. They were unable to track him, as the hedgehog had found the device under his skin and ripped it out, so they lost him.

Professor Roberts brought this news to Shadow, who was staying in a room almost as nice as his own, except that it locked from the outside. "We couldn't catch him, he was just too fast. The Commander will be most displeased, and even though they will most likely chase him, I don't think they will find him." Roberts said, keeping his tone neutral because of the listening devices. "Thanks for telling me." The black hedgehog said, giving Roberts a look of appreciation for taking such a risk.

The scientist had given him shoes and gloves identical to the ones he had before, as the Commander hadn't said anything about that. A crib for the infant hedgehog proved useless, as she wouldn't sleep unless she was in Shadow's arms. And so, the black hedgehog started to settle down a bit, knowing he would be here for a while, that is, until Maria was older.

It was nearly midnight when Shade arrived back at the first landing site where the others had chosen to make their base. It had been nearly a week since he had been gone, and he returned to see that it had been abandoned. Or that was what he thought at first. After looking around for a while, he entered the cave and found it empty.

The hedgehog shook his head and turned to leave it when he felt a sobbing person leap out at him from the darkness, knocking him over. "Where were you?! I thought you ran away!!" Atlantis cried, tears flowing down her cheeks as she held onto him tightly. She pressed her face into his chest and continued sobbing.

Shade put his arms around her and lifted her face so that she was looking into his eyes. "I would never run away from you, Atlantis, ever! GUN captured me, and my father. He chose to remain behind, having found friends to help him raise Maria, but they allowed me to escape. I would have died if they had forced me to stay there without you!" he said, suddenly forcing her lips to his.

Atlantis kissed him back, wrapping herself around him. He returned the motion, entwining his body around hers. They trembled and continued kissing each other hungrily, tightly embraced together on the cave floor. Their love and the pain of having been separated for so long combining. It was a long while before they stopped, completely out of breath.

Atlantis slowly untangled herself from him, her clothes soaked in sweat. "We need to tell the others, they've been worried sick. If you ever go missing like that again, I won't heed their warnings, and I'll go searching for you." she said as they stood. "Sounds good to me......." Shade said, but he didn't follow her. "What is it now?" she asked as he stared at the floor.

"I................ Atlantis, that was a real close one, if the people I had been captured by hadn't been soft hearted, I wouldn't have escaped." He muttered, shifting his gaze to a pebble on the floor. The girl put an arm around him, trying to understand, but he blurted it out before she had a chance. "Will you marry me?!" the hedgehog next to her said, turning to look at yet another pebble. For her answer, Atlantis took his head in her hands and looked deep into his eyes as she kissed him again.


	12. Chapter 12

As Shade stared at his father, he finally understood why so many people feared them. The other black hedgehog's eyes had started blazing, their red color seeming to catch on fire as he released his Chaos Blast. It had been so many years since he since he had seen him, the last was actually about seven years back in a government laboratory, but because they were part of the ARK Experiments, they were made to never age and neither was worse for wear.

In that year, his father had been entrusted with a little child, a newborn in fact, and wanting her to grow up in protection, he agreed to stay in a laboratory with her. Normally, he would have fought, but he knew these people from long ago, so he trusted them. But apparently, he had decided after a while to leave, or else these GUN soldiers wouldn't be attacking him, Shade thought.

The blast destroyed all the machines, and he easily escaped with his speed from the military people. Without their weapons, they're no threat, his father had once told him, but never underestimate their manipulative ways. He followed his father, waiting until he stopped to show himself.

"Hmph… I thought you were staying with the humans?" he asked with a smirk. Shadow's eyes became angry, but softened quickly when he remembered who he was talking to. "When they received an undeniable order to put a chained collar on Maria for no longer being an infant, I left. Professor Roberts was understanding, however."

Shade knew what that meant, the same scientist had allowed him to escape years ago, and he must have done the same for his father. "Where is Maria, anyway?" he wondered out loud. Shadow turned and led him to a small cave on the edge of the forest they had stopped at, pushing away the foliage to get inside. The light barely filtered through, bouncing off the walls to give the cave an eerie glow.

Immediately a small yellow hedgehog leapt at Shadow, almost knocking him over in a tight hug. She was wearing a white shirt and a ruffled blue skirt, with blue ribbons in her quills and small black shoes. "I missed you, daddy! Where've you been?!" she giggled loudly.

His father embraced her back for a moment, then pulled her off. It was then she noticed Shade. He smiled when she looked confused, as if wondering if she had grabbed the right person. "Maria, this is Shade he's…….." Shadow paused trying to think of how to explain it. "…..Your big brother." He finished, looking at his son, hoping that he hadn't offended him.

But Shade just grinned as Maria hugged him as well, smiling when snuggled her face against his chest fur. He patted her on the head and she let go of him, then he turned back to his father. The black hedgehog was surprised to see that the yellow hedgehog hadn't had an age jump. But then, some of the children did, and some of them didn't, though all of them only grew to a certain age, never growing too old.

"She reminds me of Oracle….." The scarred hedgehog said, pleased that Maria liked him. His father looked at him questioningly. "Who?" he asked. Shade ignored the question, instead turning back to the entrance. "Let's go, I'm sure Atlantis and Coral are wondering why I haven't returned yet. Oh yes, GUN never did find the entrance to the cave, so we never had to relocate, we just dug out another entrance on the other side of the mountain." "Who is Oracle?!" Shadow asked him again as he picked up Maria and followed his son at their usual breakneck speed.

When they got to the mountain, Shade immediately began to climb up it, and after a couple minutes he stopped, suddenly reaching over and shoving a large heavy boulder aside to reveal a tunnel. It was dark at first, and wet, but soon became wider and had soft glowing lights to guide their way. There were many twists and turns, and it seemed hundreds of other tunnels that went off into other parts of the base, but Shade never faltered in his step once, knowing exactly where he was going.

He was walking for the benefit of Maria, who wanted to go slow so she could watch the lights. "So……. Pretty…….." She gasped in wonderment, even Shadow seemed surprised. It was almost like being back on the Black Arms asteroid, except it didn't seem so evil, and the colors were centered more towards a light blue instead of red and purple. "This is where Oracle stays, that's why the lights are this color. There are two sides to the city, Rubieteau, and Doralien. People from the red are darker, and we are referred to as Rubes. And the Doras, are mostly blue and bright, except for Atlantis and Coral." He explained.

"A lot has happened since I left, so….. Is there any…..?" Shadow started. His son shook his head. "Of course not, we all intermingle quite a bit, it's just a fact that the two sides are different, and even though I appreciate how nice the Dora side is, I still feel more comfortable in Rubieteau. There never has been racism here."

It was then that they entered an enormous cavern, so huge that it dwarfed anything that Shadow had ever seen before. There were enormous buildings everywhere, all set in spirals, many of which had gigantic waterfalls flowing from them. Crystalline white was all over, everything seemed to be made of it, and there were pools and lakes, where boats could be seen fishing and paddling. "All the animals we rescued from the Arms were black, how did these bright beings come to be?" Shadow asked his son. The younger hedgehog sighed. "We found some more in the ship we stole not to long after I returned. They were in a hidden compartment, and weren't really labeled as important, they were meant to be training and target practice for the dark ones." He said quietly.

A slightly small white hedgehog came running up to them, she was wearing a light green dress and a pair of sandals. She was taller then Maria, but not by much. Shadow knew within an instant of looking into her lavender eyes who she was. "So this is Oracle…." He said. She had Shades eyes, oh she definitely had those, and his attitude.

"Papa, is this grandfather, cuz I don't like him, he looks like you!" she laughed. Then she spotted Maria. "Oh hi. I bet he's mean, eh? Don't let you have whatever you want, and I bet he makes you…." The little yellow hedgehog stared at her in admiring confusion, she liked this new girl, but didn't understand anything because she was talking so fast.

"Oracle……!"Shade warned her. "Jeez, what now, Papa?! Want me to take her around and show her stuff? Gee, if I don't I'll probably end up scrubbing Pixie's scales again! C'mon!" With that, she gently took Maria's arm and zoomed off with her. Shadow looked worried for a moment, but then relaxed when Shade rolled his eyes. "Well, at least she likes you…." He said.

"How old is she?" Shadow asked him as Shade led him back into the mountain. It wasn't long before the tunnel lights glowed a crimson red instead of blue. "Well, she aged like me, so let's just say about twelve. But if you think that's surpassing, you wait until you see Darkerz. Poor thing…."

"What's wrong with him?" His son was quiet for a minute before he found the right words. "He….. Takes care of all the orphans. Yes, there are orphans here." He said at his father's shocked face. "All thanks to a human sickness that someone picked up when outside getting news about GUN. They died of it, but passed it on to a lot of people before they did. It took us a long time to find a vaccine for it, by then it was too late for some. Heh, Rouge doesn't help him much…. She says it's good for him…." Shade suddenly halted, his eyes narrowing in the darkness.

"Soooo……. Diz is dat hedgehog fromz the outsidez, hmmm? Doezn't look so tough to mez!" A pair of glowing red eyes were staring at them from the darkness, a sly look about them. "Demon, you already know who this is, and I'm not in the mood today!"

But the eyes only narrowed more, and there was smirk to the tone. "Riddlez! Or noez coming inz!" That was when Shadow detected a youthfulness to the voice. Whoever this was, he was just a kid playing games. 'I'll humor him…..' Shadow thought for a moment before coming up with a good answer. "What is evil and good at the same time?" The creature in the darkness paused, surprised that someone had actually tried him.

It was a very short riddle, with a very short answer, but Shadow doubted he would understand it being so young. After five minutes, he finally gave up and let them pass. "Whatz the answerz doh?!" he yelled first.

Shadow smirked darkly at him. "That's life." The being suddenly stepped into the dim light where he could be seen. Demon was only about six years old, but that was not what made Shadow wonder. He was not a full species, instead, he was part bat, part hedgehog. The little hedge-bat had quills but wings also, his large ears and black fur told where he came from. He had not inherited the age jump.

"Well, I see a lot more has been going on then I thought." Shadow said. "Noez onez has ever beatenz my riddlez so simply beforez!! Whyz?! Whyz so easyz!?" Demon stomped his feet a couple times then ran off down a tunnel, and Shade shook his head. "Rouge is gonna have fun screaming tonight…."

"The Doras have basically a few big caverns like the one you saw, each housing big cities. Us Rubiens though…… We have smaller caverns, and those are by far many more than theirs, all connected by a maze miles and miles long. Don't lose sight of me."

Shadow finally asked the question he'd been dying to know the answer to. "How is all this possible under one small mountain?!" His son stopped, and looked sideways behind him. "It's not. When we first entered the cave, you don't see it because you're eyes are adjusting to the light, but we've gone through a portal into another world, and it's definitely not Mobius. This world…. We stay underground, mostly anyway, it feels sort of natural I suppose, though there are many villages in the trees. It has only been a few years since beings of our kind have visited this world, but the dragons are now very widespread." Shadow looked doubtful for a moment, unbelieving. Sure there were dragons in Mobius, but there were not many from what Tails had told him, and why were there even more here?

"This place," Shade continued. "This world, it seems as if we all belong here." His son walked on, this time because he didn't want his father to get lost, not that it would worry him, he just knew that it would embarrass him to ask for directions. "Oh yes, there's a couple other people living here that may shock you." The younger hedgehog said with a smirk.


	13. Chapter 13

Shadow and Shade continued on, until they got to a semi-large cave with buildings built into the rock. Instead of there being water every where, there was fire, flames, and lava. Shadow noticed however that these large pools of hellish substances were covered with force-fields, so that the heat wasn't too extreme.

He followed his son up the craggy steps into the tiny village here, and saw small, dark creatures running all about, many without supervision. Or so it appeared at first. Without warning a red and black streak of lighting zipped about and gathered them up, pulling them into a nearby building, including the mischievous Demon.

"That would be Darkerz. Hmpth, must be their dinnertime or something." Shade laughed to himself for a moment. Suddenly, he stopped, and looked up sharply to an opening high above in the cave wall, another tunnel. He glared at it for a moment, then crossed his arms over his chest. "Him again." Shadow stared at the blank spot for a moment, confused.

"What?" He asked. Shade turned to him, and pulled out the crystal that they had found onboard the ARK years ago. "You should take this back, you're going to need it." His father took the crimson gem, still uncertain. "You found out what it's for then?" He asked. Shade didn't answer, he just started walking again.

After showing Shadow some more of the Rubien side of the tunneling, Shade finally began to tell his father what had happened earlier. "That was Omar. If you remember that twitching moron. Prefers to stay on the surface with HER instead of down here, with his people." He said, with apparent dislike. The older hedgehog was surprised at Shade's tone; he had used to get along so well with the green hedgehog.

"I didn't see him… Is that one of the uses of these crystals? And by 'her' I suppose you mean Foxy?" His son nodded, and made a disgusted face.

"The Gemahoura, the race that Aunt Foxbeast comes from, are in the middle of a war, and she is their leader. She and Omar insist on keeping Jazz and Julie up there with them, to teach them, instead of allowing them to come down here where it's safer. The Fallen Race is not truly here, but they are controlling the Black Arms, and they in their stead have come to attack us." Shadow blinked then sighed.

"Have you asked the twins where they would like to be? They're definitely old enough to decide for themselves by now." He asked.

Shade was about to answer, when again, he tensed up. His ears began twitching back and forth, and he was looking around frantically, a look of fear on his face. "It couldn't be!" He exclaimed, taking off down a tunnel. His father followed him, or tried.

With a couple of turns, he was lost, and came out into another open cave, this one quite different from the last. It was filled with dragons, and all of them were wounded, being treated by nurses and doctors. He spotted a familiar face in the lot, Rouge.

She was in the corner, standing by a desk and talking to one of the doctors. They appeared to be arguing, and it seemed that the bat had lost, because she swung her leg up and kicked the young wolf in the shin. He yelped, and limped off, head and tail hung low in defeat. Shadow walked cautiously up to her, knowing how touchy she was in a mood like this.

Rouge noticed, and immediately ran up to him and wrapped him in a crushing hug. "Shadow! Tell that bastard to let me go home already Dammit, I can't spend any more days here!!" She began sobbing on him, and then as he watched she stood up straight and began chasing the doctor again, starting to scream again. The poor doctor took off again, whimpering and yelling that he had changed his mind and she could leave. Rouge walked back up to Shadow again.

"They don't get it; I want to go home… Take me home, please!!" She started begging him. The ebon hedgehog nodded, and followed her down a tunnel, shocked at how quick her behavior was changing. One moment she was mad, and the next a whining child.

"Are you alright?" He asked her.

"Do I look fine, my make up is smearing from this heat, DAMMIT!!" She yelled at him as they walked on. He followed her back to the cave he had seen Darkerz in, and to the exact building he had scooped up all the children in.

Darkerz stepped out to meet them, and let Rouge go in before looking pleadingly at Shadow. "No." He said before the desperate hedgehog could ask. "Why is she acting…?" Shadow was interrupted by loud banging and yelling in the building, which Darkerz chose to ignore for a moment.

"She's pregnant again, and she gets emotional." He explained before running back inside.

Well, that would explain it, Shadow wondered in surprise. Looking around, he still didn't see Shade anywhere. "Great." He muttered to himself.

It was then that a rather strange creature came to him. It was a rabbit that was plain to see, but dressed in strange medieval clothing, unlike any of the others here. A tank top, pants, and boots, with a rather large backpack on was what he wore. His red hair was also tied into a ponytail, and his face was only a shade darker then that, with a white muzzle.

"Hello. You seem rather lost, need some help?" He asked, his ears twitching, eyes watching closely.

"Have you seen Shade? He's my son and it appears even I couldn't keep up with him." Shadow said to him.

The rabbit seemed to think for a moment, then nodded. "I know how to find him, by the way, I'm Meiou. Pardon me though, I haven't seen you before."

"Shade only just brought me here. It's all really interesting this place is, very different from the world with humans." Shadow explained as he followed him.

The rabbit led him to a rather strange device in the wall. It appeared to be a round gate of some sort; the center was a bright swirl of purples, blacks, and whites. Meiou began pressing buttons on a panel nearby, humming to himself.

"This is a portal I have created; it goes to all the halls of the Rubieteau, and the one main hall of the Doraliens. Shade is often running through all of them, so you'll catch him in one of these rooms eventually. Otherwise you'd have to wait for him to come to you." He explained, his long ears drooping over his face a bit.

The ebon hedgehog looked at it skeptically, until another rabbit came up and ran right through it without question or second-thought. Shadow walked up to it, glancing at the rabbit, who only tilted his head in interest. He leapt in.

Through the dizzying swirling colors, the hedgehog was spinning, then suddenly thrown out without warning onto the ground on the other side. He stood up slowly, his stomach churning. Obviously that would take some getting used to. Looking around, he saw he was again on the Dora side.

"Hahahaa! You look like a sick fish!" Oracle was pointing and giggling madly. Maria stood beside her, hands over her mouth trying not to laugh. She failed in the next moment, and burst with it, giggling as hard as her friend.

Shadow could only smile. He loved seeing her happy, and if she thought he was funny he must be.

Finally regaining his equilibrium he went over to them. "Have either of you seen Shade? I can't seem to find him."

Oracle nodded, still laughing. "He came by to check on us, then headed to the surface. There's been another attack, so he went to help. It's over with by now I think, he should be coming back soon to check again."

An attack, he wondered, had the Black Arms truly found them again? It was at that moment his son returned, and he didn't look pleased.

"Sorry I had to run off, but there was an attack, and it wasn't a normal one either." He said, shaking his head.

"Why?" His father asked.

"They wanted one of us. To use. And… it was him…" Shade shuddered, and looked at Oracle. "Oracle, go bring your mother, now."

Oracle left without a word, sensing her father's serious tone that no jokes were to be made. She was swift, and returned within just a few minutes, not even making a face when she was dismissed with Maria to go play.

"It was Bujin. Or what's left of him. The Black Arms have taken his soul and melded it with a whole new being of monstrosity. It fits his dark heart well, he's even uglier then Black Doom was…" He started.

Shadow and Atlantis both growled at the mention of the name. He was a complete evil, that hedgehog had been when he was alone. With the help of Eggman he had been worse, but with the Black Arms at hand, who knew what he was capable of?

"He took Omar, no one else. He was one of the main targets. Foxy's a complete reck, and the kids… We haven't been able to get a word out of them, they were of course nearly taken as well, if it hadn't been for Omar. Without him we'd have lost them for sure. They witnessed it all, the kids. We don't know what to tell them…" Shade paused for a moment, shaking his head again.

"We have to free him immediately, before that bastard does anything to him, though it may even now be too late. We're going to need help on this one, and the Gemahoura are unable to aid, they've been blockaded out, and all portals besides the planetary transport systems have been destroyed through impulse shock." The younger black hedgehog lead them off to the same portal that Shadow had used earlier.

Once again in the dark heated lava caves, they quickly ran off, though Shade was sure that Shadow was able to keep up. He didn't truly need to though, as his father was now getting quite used to this.

They arrived at the obvious destination, a rather large building, for the Rubien side anyway. It was a large warehouse, cracked and dilapidated, unmatching to the other buildings as it was made of metal rather then stone. Shade knocked on the side of a blank wall to it a few times in rhythm.

Within a minute, the same rabbit that Shadow had seen earlier appeared out of a window one story above them. "Yes?" He asked, smiling at shadow for a moment before turning to look at Shade and Atlantis.

"It's time for you to show us this masking skill you have." Shade said.

"Hmmmmm…" The rabbit hopped down. "Really? I thought you didn't need any help, accept for the portals."

"It seems I was wrong about that." The younger hedgehog muttered.

Shadow looked back and forth at them. They must have had a dispute about something before, because they didn't seem very please to be talking to each other. Must have never been resolved, he thought to himself.

The two continued to glare at each other, Shade frowning angrily, and Meiou smiling because he knew he was needed.

"So, what can I do for you?" The amber-eyed rabbit asked, turning to Shadow.

Shade glared harder at being ignored, but didn't say anything. Action had to be taken, and quickly. Arguing was no way to get anything done, he could settle this later.

Shadow, still not having any idea for the reason of his son's anger, didn't judge at the moment. "The Black Arms have taken a hostage for experimentation, we must retrieve him."

"Understood. And he'd obviously be the one that didn't look like the aliens, but I'll take a description anyway. This will be an interesting mission."


	14. Chapter 14

The four traveled to the surface, lead by Meiou. It was a shock for Shadow, this new territory, he had thought perhaps it would look like earth. It did not. It was a rather dark place, black soil and mountains, a red sky with white lightning, and within this strange wasteland, the most disturbing and vicious vegetation that looked as if it would come alive and attack at any moment.

There were buildings though, and that was where the rabbit took them. All the buildings were small, including this one, though it appeared to be a command center with it's symbols. A blue penguin and black cat came out of it, whom Shadow immediately recognized as Articzlar and Crimzone.

"It'z about time youz got here, Shadowz. That last attack was beyondz are capability to defend! Will we be the first colonyz to fall?!" Articzlar said in a hyper voice that the hedgehog had never heard her use before. Her partner sighed and shook her head, her red and black markings now tainted with scars.

"Nothing is certainz, even I cannot seez the future with thesez developmentz." She said. "With Omarz gone, we have lost a greatz protection. We will have to seek anotherz for the time being. Fortunately, the Foxez has an idea for one. But an expedition will have to be sentz for this, as well as for Omarz. Unless of course he came on his ownz, this newz one, but the likelihood of thatz is lowz."

"Where's Foxy?" Shadow asked.

"She is busy at the moment, you should understand. She won't be seeing anyone for some time." The rabbit answered for him. He turned back to the cat. "I know of who you speak, it would be wise to fetch this new one, and have him aid us in getting Omar back. We don't have enough power at the moment to be able to handle this alone. I doubt he would refuse with the whole settlement on the line, expectially if we offer a high enough price."

"Unfortanately I agree with the rabbit. We need a few more, with knowing what Bujin is capable of." Shade said.

Shadow continued to watch with interest. This new world, and what seemed a new order of things was quite intriguing. Was this planet really that dangerous, that a single colony was in danger so easily, he wondered.

It didn't take them long to gather the needed supplies for the journey, and they were on their way within a half an hour. The clouds had receded for a short time, to reveal a full moon that glowed a strange, erie blue.

"It won't take long to get there, we just had to load up because of the dangers along the way. Just in case you know." Meiou explained. "If we're lucky, we won't run into any."

They were crawling and running through the strangest of rocky canyons, moving quickly, perhaps not as fast as the hedgehog could at full speed, but as fast as the rabbit could go, for he was the guide. Only the three of them had gone, as they needed to cover ground fast.

"The clouds only clear at night, so we never see the sun, and aside from the lightning, it's always dark." Said the bunny as they continued. "We should camp soon though, it's been nearly a day since we left without rest, and night brings out the more potent predators."

They set camp in a cave, after Shade checked it for other inhabitants, which luckily their were none. Blocking the entrance with rocks except for a small part for air, they lit a small fire, and had dinner without speaking, and went to bed. Shadow, being the original ultimate lifeform and created so that he didn't truly need sleep, (though he could) volunteered to stay awake.

When it was morning, Shade was the first to awaken, and still hadn't spoken a word to the rabbit more then needed. He only glared at him. Shadow decided to let the rabbit sleep a while longer.

"So, why do you dislike Meiou so much? How has he wronged you?" The elder hedgehog asked him.

Shade turned to look at him, then back at the rabbit again, still sleeping as he was, a long ear flopping with his snoring.

"He hasn't… Technically wronged me… So much as making me look like a fool. And what's worse, he may be stronger… then I."

"More powerful? Interesting… You are as powerful as Omar, if not more by a touch, making you slower. He spoke as if Omar were the strongest of them all though. And a fool? How so?"

Shade closed his eyes, then looked at the floor. "The rabbit… He uses a strange technique to look like others. I haven't figured it out yet. He can duplicate them, and be a an exact replica. But… I asked a favor of him when I shouldn't have."

Shadow waited. What could have possibly come between the two?

"I asked him to look like mother. Then became angry with him, because he wouldn't. I understand why now, of course. It would only bring back darkness, and sadness.

But most of our people heard it, and saw how I reacted. I'm surprised that he even comes near me now, after nearly killing him. I was shocked not to be banned from the colony itself for having such a rage." The young hedgehog sighed, then stood.

"But I AM stronger then him, and he shall see it soon. Soon this shall all come to an end…"

Before Shadow could reply, his son had walked up to the rabbit and kicked him awake, harder then necessary.

"We don't have time to sleep in, rabbit. Let's go."

"Owowowow Ow… Alright, alright!" The rabbit rolled over to get away and quickly stood up, rubbing himself. "You don't have to do that to get me up."

Shade didn't answer, instead he picked his share up the supplies up and unblocked the cave's entrance to leave.

Meiou picked up his own bags with a slightly worried face and followed, as did Shadow.

The clouds had returned again, and with the lightning on this day, heavy rain and winds.

Shade was standing in it with his head up, looking to the sky. As the other two came out of the cave, he turned and dropped his bag to the muddy ground, a dark look in his eyes.

"So easy, and rather simple to get you both out here alone. It's rather a pity you won't see the others again." He said with a maniacle grin.

"What do you mean? Shade what the hell are you talking about?!" Shadow started walking towards him.

Meiou stopped him, shaking his head. "I can't believe I didn't catch it, he played the act so well. Shadow, that's not your son."

"What do you…?"

"Nice deduction rabbit, though I assure you, the real Shade feels the same way about you, I'm sure he would say so, if he could be here. But he can't, so you'll have to deal with me. Hmm… Or not. I was thinking of sparing you both, given the fact that we were friends before, but I think not. You bore me." The look-a-like Shade said.

He leapt up into the air, spinning too fast for the eye to see his movements. He returned to the ground, with what looked like Shade's skin and face draped over an arm. He was Omar.

But this Omar… He looked different… He had black markings over his eyes, arms and quilltips, his boots were longer and had belts on them. He pulled a cigarette out of a pouch-like purse he had over his shoulder and lit it.

"It took Bujin less time then we thought, we were far too late… He impersonated Shade with a suit and mask of him." Meiou said, his ears drooping.

The green hedgehog threw the suit in the mud and took another breath of the smoke, his grin widening as he glared at them, his eyes glowing red instead of their usual soft purple.

"What have you done with Shade?! What happened to you?!" Shadow said, his voice rising.

"Oh have no fear, he's not dead, not yet anyway. Neither are those other Mobiuns we retrieved that you knew. What were they're names? Oh yes… Sonic, Tails, and Rouge were the prized ones we found. I can't remember the other experiments original names they called themselves." Omar let out a dark laugh, his ear and quill ring piercings jingling in the wind.

The wind continued to howl and the rain seemed to get worse, and the lightning more frequent. The storm was not going to lessen anytime soon.

Shadow was at a complete loss for words. How could this be Omar?! This had to be some sort of replica experiment of Bujins. This couldn't be the loving, caring Omar he had known before… He didn't even speak with the same accent…

Omar tilted his head snootily at Shadow and snorted. "Still don't think it's me hunh? Well, then, how's this." He took another long pull and tapped the ashes for a moment. "After I'm finished with you both, I'll go after my dear bitch of a wife, and perhaps we can teach those two brats of ours some manners. Knowing the entire colony, both Rubieteau, and Doralien, the invasion should be quite easy. I'm sure Maria would be happy to see me again, she's such a doll. Pity we'll have to kill her innocence."

Shade had had enough of this Omar. It was now obvious that he was truly the original, he knew too much to be one of Bujin's newest copies. Whatever he had done to his friends mind, had made him turn into a completely evil creature.

Shadow's eyes glanced towards Meiou, the rabbit was standing his ground, though he knew one way or the other he probably wouldn't make it. Him and Omar had stood on somewhat equal ground before, but now, with such darkness, anger, and insanity fueling the green hedgehog, he knew better then to think he could win in this weather.

If he were to run, and Shadow were to fight, he wouldn't be able to forgive himself, and Omar would probably win and come after him anyway now that he was stronger. If he stayed, he would be in the way of the ebon hedgehog, and they would both die.

Without warning, Shadow turned, racing towards the rabbit and grabbing his hand; his dragwinds keeping the bunny from bumping the ground as he raced down the mountain and into the strangely vegetated woods.

"Tell me where to go, where's this guy we're looking for?!" The hedgehog asked as he ran, they could hear Omar laughing behind them. He was teasing them. He could catch them, if he wished it.

"This is rather fun, I'll let you both have a head start, but only five minutes." He said as he slowed down and stopped.

The evil hedgehog disappeared behind them, the dark smile still on his face. Shadow turned his focus back to the path ahead and Meiou's instructions.

It wasn't but ten minutes later that they arrived at their destination, going at full speed it truly didn't take long at all. It was a rather interesting hole in the side of a hill, if you could call it that. It was a mound of metal plates all bent into a dome shape, about twenty meters going out round.

Meiou walked until they were a couple feet from it, and knocked… on the ground, where there was yet another round plate, flat in the rock. Only about a foot and a half round, it vibrated for a moment, then a reply knock came. The rabbit knocked on it again, in sequence this time. It opened.

A strange creature stuck it's head out and looked up at them. It looked like a mongoose, or weasel, but it was white all over. It came out all the way, and it's appearance became stranger. It had black spiked hair, and brown linings on his brows, arms and legs. His eyes were blue. He wore a brown cape, carried a satchel, and had black boots.

"Hiya Meiou. Hmmm… Who's this Shade look-a-like?" He asked.

"Shadow, Shade's father, actually. Shadow, this is Snicket, he's an ermine as you can see. He's the one we were looking for." The rabbit said the ebon hedgehog.

"Hmmm… Hope he's got more control over his temper then Shade does I hope he does in fact I do." Snicket said. "Pleased to meet you anyway I am, yes I am."


	15. Chapter 15

"We must hurry back, now that we know that Omar has been turned, and that they have more hostages then we thought. We have to warn the colonies." Meiou said to the ebon hedgehog, Shadow.

Shadow glanced at the rabbit, then looked back at Snicket, the ermine they had hired for protection. The white creature was packing a few bags onto a rather interesting hovercraft that had emerged from his dome house. He went into the building and returned with a large machine gun and attached it to the center of the floor of the craft.

"Unless Omar decided to go and raid at this moment, even that may not be enough to stop him, though it may slow him down." Shadow replied.

Meiou didn't reply right away, he just gazed into the 'forest'. After a few minutes he turned back.

"The colonies aren't prepared for anything like this. We can't defend ourself against one of our own when they've teamed with Bujin. The scientist will know all our defenses and weakness' now. We won't stand a chance unless… We go back. But even that's risky." He said.

"No. We cannot move back to the human world! You know what they would do to us if they found us all. We'd be even more vulnerable there. We have to rescue the others from the lab. And capture Omar." Said the hedgehog.

The rabbit shook his head. "Most likely Omar is gathering the forces to attack with Bujin. While we'd be rescuing them, Bujin would be attacking the colonies and gathering more hostages, and killing the ones he found uninteresting or useless. We must return, to at least defend as best we can. With Omar's memories, the first place the scientist would go is to the children."

Snicket, who had been listening to the conversation the entire time, came over, apparently he had finished loading up. He looked at them with concern, this job was not going to be easy.

"If this sounds as bad as it is, I believe we'll require more forces. For a little higher price, I have… connections as I can put it lightly I do, have connections that is." He said to them, his brown tail-tip twitching.

The hedgehog and rabbit looked at him, then each other. They nodded. The ermine pulled out a communication device that appeared to be a cross between a cell phone and walkie-talkie.

Within the hour they were on their way again, this time, as a small army. The ermine had his contacts, or as can be said, he lived with them. The dome upon the hill had been only a doorway to an underground structure, not as big as the colonies, but an organization of warriors and mercenaries ready to go at the moments notice. The fee he had mention being higher was astronomical, but well worth it, with the numerous battle tanks, gun-speeders, and armored terrain vehicles. All of them piloted by either an ermine, mongoose, or weasel of varying colors. Everyone of them had the marks of battle and the looks of long, hard fights in the past.

Shadow, Snicket and Meiou rode on the front hover craft that had originally came from the base first. They could only hope that they were in time to stop the scientist from attacking.

"What are you looking at that for?" Shadow asked Meiou, as Snicket was busy piloting the craft and talking on his phone. The rabbit had apparently picked up the suit Omar had been wearing that looked like Shade, and was examining with a strange look on his face.

Meiou didn't answer, he seemed to interested in the suit, flipping it inside out, this way and that. Shadow nudged him with his shoe and he finally turned.

"Hmmm? Oh. It's nothing… Nothing… I'll deal with it later..." He muttered distractedly.

"What do you mean it's nothing? It looks like something to me."

"Not many people can make suits this well, not anyone with us certainly besides myself. Not for a long time have I seen a suit this perfect before…"

"Really? That's all that has you worried?" The ebon hedgehog asked.

"You underestimate the power of such deception. Think of it. You couldn't tell that wasn't Shade could you? As twisted as he's become, Omar knew both of you well enough to pull it off without hardly any flaw. Though he couldn't have possibly made this suit himself. I only know of one other… And he left years ago." Meiou told him, putting the suit in his bag and zipping it shut.

Shadow halted his speaking. The rabbit was right. He had been unable to tell that it hadn't been his son. He had thought perhaps he couldn't tell because his son had changed from their time apart, but the green hedgehog had fooled not only him, but Meiou, Atlantis upon saying goodbye before the trip, and all the others as well. Bujin had worked impossibly fast, changing the once good hearted hedgehog within minutes. The short time Shade had disappeared after the attack had been when the scientist had made the switch.

"You see. With this kind of power, nearly all of us are suspects. We have no way of trusting each other." Said the rabbit.

"And you believe it's this one person that's helping Bujin? How so?" Shadow questioned.

"I used to know this creature very well. Too well in fact. He used to work with me, an apprentice you may call it… We had an argument, in which he left on bad terms. I never saw him again. I didn't expect him to turn this way though. He knows about many of my machines, creating suits and masks, and acting." The bunny continued.

The vehicle suddenly lurched, it's brakes slamming on and it ground to a halt quickly, along with the rest of the small armada. Meiou and Shadow were thrown backwards without warning, but were able to grab hold before they fell off.

"What the HELL?!" Shadow yelled at Snicket, who was quickly climbing off the craft.

He returned, carrying a small, two tailed fox, whom Shadow instantly recognized as Tails. Another weasel came aboard as well, holding up two more animals, a gray fox and a tan rabbit.

Shadow hurried to them. This wasn't the first time he had seen any of them. And from the looks of it, it was obvious where they had just come from. The gray fox was Flick, and the new rabbit, Cream. Her chao companion wasn't in sight. Shadow knew they wouldn't part unless one of them had died. Shadow knew that Bujin was most likely responsible for that.

"Tails!" Meiou exclaimed, helping the new passengers up.

"You know him?" Shadow asked.

Before the rabbit could reply, the fox looked up, though ragged and bruised, he was still conscious, unlike his companions.

"It was him, it was him, Meiou…! He's not under… control… He's gone… mad…! Colbalt…"

With that, the fox fell back to the darkness, and though they tried, he wouldn't wake up, he had too much. They put him down and let him sleep with the others as they continued toward the colonies.

"What was Tails babbling about, what's going on rabbit?!" Shadow asked Meiou. The ebon hedgehog was getting frustrated, though the bunny had told him a lot, he knew that he'd also kept a great deal secret as well.

"Colbalt… My old assistant. I was teaching him about what I do many years back… As I said before, I had an argument with him, I caught him using the masking technique to continuously steal, and destroy others lives. It got to the point where he killed some of the members of his clan, and he wouldn't stop. I confronted him, and he left. He had sworn not to kill again, though his previous time was an accident… But this…" Meiou stopped as the colonies came into view.

The only reason they hadn't seen the smoke in the sky from the great flames, was because of the already dark clouds, but now the buildings were not to be seen. Only enormous machines, machines that were picking up the helpless and collecting them into giant bubbles that were attached to the bellies of the crafts. The mechanical limbs seemed almost dainty as they chose which to retrieve next, they had all the time and help they needed, for there were nearly fifty arms on each beast aside from the thick, clawed legs used for walking.

Atop the largest of the machines, stood a two tailed white fox, remarkably similar to Tails, if the fox had ever been pure evil. He laughed maniacally, dancing about on his ride, giving orders and controls through a communication device similar to the ones Organization 0 used.

The now tiny appearing armada of mercenaries for hire slowed down, shocked at the scene. They had seen many things, but nothing such as this.

They came within range of the machines, and though they pulled out guns and bombs, didn't dare use them in fear of harming the captives. They could now here what the crazed fox was saying.

"My oh my what a sight!

How lovely these flames are tonight!

Such wailing such screaming,

my it is pleasing!

Come with me oh unfortunate ones,

I'll show you a new world!

Oh why do you run?

It hurts so much less if you work for us willingly!

The rain the rain,

it cannot put out our flames!

Allow the mutilation!

See how the planet fights,

Yet even it cannot defeat us!

You are all ours! Hahahaha!"

"Colbalt… You insane bastard… You'll never learn." Shadow heard Meiou saying to himself as they held on for their lives.

Dodging and weaving though the debris and machines, as skilled as they were, they couldn't do it forever, and one by one, slowly, they began to either crash, break down, or the inhabitants were captured by the machines until there were only about seven of the Organization left. Tanks that were unable to move, be picked clean, or torn apart seemed a grave for the flames closing in on them.

The seven surviving craft veered away from the destruction, toward a bunker that, strangely, wasn't being attacked. It was several miles from the fire, and though they suspected that it could be used to get into the caverns undetected, they also knew that the enemy had to be using it as well.

Parking the hover machines outside, the now drenched crews left them, a few of them carrying the surviving captives they had found along the way. A mongoose with black hair led the way, leading them carefully into the bunker with a large gun drawn. It seemed clear, until they reached the hangar that was between the entrances above and below ground.

The mongoose with black hair, whose name was Ash, moved to fire, but was stopped by Snicket. If he had allowed it, Omar most likely would have pulled the stick out of the grenade he was holding near his captives. The green hedgehog looked even worse then before, he had blood running down the left side of his face, and his fur had become even more tangled then before, if even possible. He had retrieved his jacket, but had torn the sleeve halfway up the left arm.

"Careful now, there. My fingers just may… Slip? That would be a pity, to have my own bloodline destroyed, but I can always run and make another one. Though this one turned out decent I think, even though they're filthy half-breeds. They may still be of use." He held the grenade and motioned for the two hedgefoxs behind him to get one of the Black Arms ships that was in the hanger.

"Uncle Shadow!" said the purple hedgefox, for she was Julie, and the other Jazz. She moved to run to him but Omar grabbed her by her neck from behind.

"Now, now there little missy! What did I just tell you before they got here? No running over to the filth I'm threatening, even if they are what you may call family. Heh, who needs family anyway? Now be a good little girl, and get on daddy's spaceship, and perhaps Uncle Colbalt and Bujin will be more lenient with your pain and training." The green hedgehog said with a sneer.

Jazz took this opportunity to grab the grenade in his changed father's hand. With the speed that he had inherited, he had thrown it far out of reach, and was facing the older hedgehog, ready to fight.

Shadow and the rest watched, amazed. It had been years since the ebon hedgehog had seen his nephew, and it was apparent that the child he had once cared for was now in his teens, as was Julie. And he was much stronger.

"Uncles meh ass! And as for yaself, ya are no longer considered meh father. Though ya may have allowed at meh request to bury meh mother, I knew full well, it was yaself that killed her. And in turn, it shall be meh, who destroys ya, treacherous bastard!" Jazz said. He glanced at Julie, nodding as she got out of the hover craft. He sped between her and Omar as she moved to join Shadow across the room.

Though Jazz was now older, Shadow knew that he had changed little. He was still wearing the black jacket, but now had glasses to match it, and his tails had grown out more. His accent had changed slightly, but not much. It was easy to tell, that he was now an adult in their species, if not completely physically, mentally.

The two green hedgehog circled each other, Omar no longer smiling. His grin had turned to a frown, and his eyes became darker it seemed.

"You think you can win, boy? It was I who spawned you, I can easily take you out as well. And you don't have the guts to murder your own father, even when I did kill your mother. She was asking for it. Whining, always wanting me to forget the past. And after I changed for the better, she decided to start the waterworks. All the way to the end. 'Oh Omar, how could you?! How could he do this to you? Please come back to me, go back! Please don't take Jazz and Julie!'" The elder hedgehog said in a mocking voice, imitating Foxbeast.

"STOP IT! Ya disgrace her by even speaking of her!" Jazz yelled at him, starting to tremble.

"Awww… What's the matter? Miss Mommy?" Omar jested.

"I said… STOP!" Jazz charged at him, pulling a Chaos Emerald out of his pocket and moving as if to make a punch to his opponents face. His fist had become a charged ball of green energy from the emerald.

Omar disappeared just as the fist was about to make contact with him, now smiling again. He reappeared in the ship's doorway., laughing.

"You can't catch me, let alone hit me! I have your blood, and all your abilities. Unfortunately, I no longer have hostages thanks to you. Oh well, at least I have all those others to play with, if Colbalt did his job correctly. Bujin will be pleased that the mission was a success. Though I wish I could have taken you both…"

Jazz charged again, this time without saying a word. The door closed moments before he got to it, but strangely enough, it didn't seem to anger the young hedgehog. Instead of despairing, he reached into his pocket. Pulling out a small circular device, he pressed it on the hull of the ship as it fired up its engines. The blast from the exhaust ports knocked him to the floor, but the device stayed in place as the gunship sped out of the hangar and into the night sky above.

The hangar roof closed as Jazz stood, a grim, but satisfied look on his face. The others finally came up to him, now that the confrontation had passed.

"Try to hide now… Father…" Jazz turned to Shadow after saying this, trying to hide his pain behind a small, fake smile. "Hiya, Uncle."

Shadow put a hand on his nephew's shoulder. "You did all you could." The ebon hedgehog turned to the waiting mercenaries. "There is no time for grief… We must save those that they haven't reached yet. We must go to the caverns." The shock of what had truly happened had not yet hit the hedgehog, he knew what had happened, but he forced his mind away, not willing to except it yet. There was still time, there was always time… She was still alive certainly, Omar wouldn't have killed her. Jazz was mistaken.


	16. Chapter 16

"There isn't anyone down there. We were the last ones out after he came down there. We thought… He was going to take us again. He was so close… The beast. But… That creature that used to be our father, he came and took us. Bujin said something about keeping him occupied…" Julie said, before Shadow could have the Organization search the caverns.

"You're positive that you were the last? What happened to everyone else?" Shadow said, his voice rising. Not Maria… No… Not again…

"Yes… The others… Some may have gotten out… But… The monster was so close… He had those… those things with him… The needles… And… He was… Could he possibly be a living being anymore… The machinery on him… He didn't have so many before… He almost touched us…!" Julie stopped, she couldn't continue for the tears, she was still in emotional shock, and terrified.

"If anyone else made it, they're in the stronghold next teh this hanger… It can't beh opened from the outside…" Jazz said. He had put on his glasses, trying to hide himself it seemed.

Shadow glanced at him, then turned back and went to the door leading to the stronghold. He stared at it. It was sealed and locked. He tapped at it, apprehensive. There was a return tap, and a dull, muffled voice.

"Who goes there?!"

"We are evacuating the colonies with armored transports and guards, it's now or never! Open up!" Snicket said, now standing next to Shadow.

"Show proof that you are friendly!"

Meiou walked up to the door. "In reference to the codes, how are we to prove it? Some of our own have turned, and have the knowledge that can 'prove' that we are friendly."

Jazz walked up to the door, shoving through the crowd. He knocked on it. "Mayhaps weh can't prove who weh are, but perhaps Spike, ya should come on out before ya run out o' supplies and have teh leave into the beast's claws." He said.

There was a silence, then clicking and clanking noises. The door opened to reveal that the wall was nearly 3 feet thick, made upon layers and layers of unrecognizable material.

A white echidna stepped out and did a quick bow to Jazz, his decorated spines moving silently as he motioned for the others to come out as well.

"I apologize, Master Jazz, for taking such suspicion, but it was necessary after the events tonight. Hmm… who is this?" He asked, turning to Shadow.

"Shade's Father." Jazz said, distracting himself with seeing who had been hidden in the room.

"I see. It's a pleasure to meet you, though under these horrid circumstances. If you'll excuse me, Master." The echidna turned and disappeared back into the crowd, returning with Atlantis, Oracle, and Maria.

Shadow fell to his knees and pulled the golden furred hedgehog to him, tears coming from his eyes, as he held her close. He was unable to speak, but he thought he could never let go of her again. He had nearly lost her… The monster had almost gotten her…

"I'm okay, Daddy! What's wrong?" Maria asked.

Ash walked up to Shadow, apparently distracted. "I'm afraid we don't have time for that at the moment. We have to go, now. That maniac of a fox is coming this way. And we can't stop him, it'll be a miracle if we escape him." The mongoose said.

Shadow stood up, still holding the little hedgehog's hand. He nodded to the mongoose. "Do we have enough room? It looks as if there are nearly a hundred here, though most are women and children."

"We do. Just barely though. We have to hurry."

When they had finally found a safe place, or safer being as many miles they could put between them and the machines, they finally took a rest at a station that the organization used for emergencies.

To nearly all their surprise, many had in fact made it to the bunker instead of going outside to what was certain doom or capture. As Shadow had said though, most were women and children, as the fighters of the colonies had tried to delay the attackers and became captured themselves. Nearly all the remaining were families or the old and weak, though many of the families had been split apart, some capture, some safe. The only capable fighters left were the ones who had been escorting them into the safe hold, ready to protect it in case a way was found inside.

"We can't just sit here, out in the open. It's far too dangerous. Not only from the beast scientist, but the natural creatures that live here." Darkerz said, for he had been one of the escorters.

"I know… But where to go… This world… Is far too dangerous without shelter. And without a safe haven to rest, we cannot plan the rescue mission." Snicket said.

It was 'day' again, and the clouds still covered the black sky, and lightning flashed, though the rain had stopped. They were all huddled in a giant mass in and around the station, with the last of the hover machines and vehicles making a circular perimeter.

Tails came up to them, having regained consciousness with the others that had been the first to be caught. He looked at everyone thoughtfully, then his eyes lit up. "I know of a place… It's… been a long time since I've been there though. And we'll need a portal to make it."

"A portal isn't a problem. I can use one of the hovercrafts and convert it within a few hours." Meiou said.

"This place. It's absolutely safe, from them. They'll never find it. Though I warn you, do not mention Cobalt. Leave that, to me." Tails finished. The fox had matured as Jazz had, though now he was most certainly in his late teens.

Meiou had spoken true, with Tails' and Flick's help, for the gray fox was just as skilled as they now though he still could not speak, the portal was ready within two hours.

Tails got up on one of the hover craft, raising his arms and waiting for them to be silent. He knew better then to send them through without letting them know what to expect first.

"If any of you all have heard of Mobius, then know, this place is nearly an exact replica, environmentally wise. The sun shines, the trees and grass are green, so don't be alarmed, we are leaving this world for now. There are, however, no humans." The fox got down off the hover craft, and gave the signal he was finished. They started through the portal.

"This is the land I came from originally, though Mom and Dad never admitted it. This land, and the people in this tribe we are finding safe haven with, are the Quicktails. Nearly all foxes here, are born with two tails. Mom for some reason was born with only one, and Dad was from Mobius, a normal breed of fox. They left to Mobius together." Tails explained as they walked through the green forest of this new world.

The Rubieans and Doraliens were looking around at this place with a sense of awe, Most of them had been born in the other dimension, and had not seen green plants before. The trees were tall, far taller then even the trees of earth, and every now and then, they'd hear a rustle of movement far above.

"That will be my kin. It won't be long before we come to the main entrance way and the city. They'll know of our arrival by now." The fox said.

Shadow had followed them from reaching the station without so much as a word. He had finally taken in that his sister was gone. Though he didn't grieve on the outside, he kept it within him. He feared if he broke down in front of Jazz, Julie, and the rest, that they may as well. Jazz had stopped talking as well, though his sister was keeping her self busy by helping Oracle tend to Maria.

Spike helped them, for it turned out that he had been sent by the Knuckles tribe to watch over Coral and Atlantis. They had been created by the eighth Chaos Emerald, and had become it. When the tribe had heard that there was another emerald, they had sent him to find and protect it, though they had no way of knowing that it had turned into living beings.

In the attack however, Coral had been injured beyond saving, so, he used his powers to transfer her part of the Chaos Emerald's energy into her sister. So now the emerald was no longer split, and had become one again, though still not returned to it's original form. Spike had decided to stay and watch over Atlantis, her offspring and her relatives, feeling it his duty as a guardian.

They came upon the gates of the village. Unlike the echidnas, the foxes had not become a tribe dependent only on the spiritual power of the emeralds. They had combined it with technology far beyond that of any human or Mobiun's dream. The buildings that wove in and around the trees were immense, and though the treetops themselves were not visible, neither were the tops of the buildings. The windows were used like doors, as the inhabitants all had two tails and flew about the city, though many also used flying craft to get around, mostly the too young and elderly.

The dwellings were decorated with different colored tribal markings, as were the foxes themselves, though they also were modern clothing and dress. Many had goggles like Tails, and were flying about as if they were racing each other. They took interest in the newcomers, watching them curiously, though not coming over to them. That was left to only a select group.

"Ah, tis the young Prower. It's been such a long time. From the looks of it, you have brought an awful lot of… friends with you… Are you in need of something?" Said the leader of a group of uniformed officers. He was a handsome orange fox, with a badge of two fox tails on his chest, made of gold.

"Yes. Unfortunately so Sire, I wish I could have come on better terms. There will be time to explain later, but for now, could you find us all a place to rest?"Tails asked with a bow.

"Of course." The uniformed foxes helped the large group into a large flying vehicle. Spike swore upon his life to protect Maria while Shadow, Tails, Jazz, Snicket, and a young mongoose they called Mina remained behind to be escorted to the Royal Council to explain.

They arrived at the council quarters, and large domed building that rose high into the sky, trees having grown and woven themselves around it. After a long explanation, the council conferred and called them back in.

"This being you speak of, and the situation, is not unfamiliar to us. Though he has not yet invaded this world, there are reports from our ambassadors that he has been in others. As always, we welcome you and all the people you have brought to stay as long as you like. You may make your home here if you please even. Though even we know that eventually, if not stopped, he will come here." The same fox that had greeted them before said.

They thanked them for their kindness and were about to leave, when Tails halted them. He shook his head.

"Yes?"

"I'm afraid that's not all the bad news sire. I regret to inform, that one of our own has joined the beast called Bujin. His name will be familiar to you. Colbalt!" There was a burst of conversation between the council members as Tails announced this, anger and fear.

"Silence! Tails, if this is true, then things are far worse then we have thought. Not only will we have to build our borders more stronger, but we'll have to get involved directly. We'll have to hunt him down, and exterminate him. Thank you for the information, please go. We need to discuss this more."

As they left, Tails attempted to explain.

"Cobalt, was not only Meiou and Finitevus' apprentice, but he came from the Quicktails. And not only was he one of us, he was… Special. He came from the royalty of the council itself. The leader who've I've been speaking with, Brove, is Cobalt's brother. So ordering that… He has ordered his brother's death."


	17. Chapter 17

Jazz had been listening intently to all that had been going on but wasn't about to get happy that they had new allies. He had wanted to tell Meiou and Shadow badly, but was afraid that he could be wrong. He truly didn't believe that Omar had killed his mother. There was something wrong with the whole thing. He hadn't heard her speak before she died, there had only been a body, and it was… different though it did look like her.

He decided to keep the information quiet for the moment. If he was wrong and his mother truly was dead, it would cause only more tears to tell them she was alive. He had to be absolutely certain first.

The furry, green hedge-fox waited for the meeting to be over, their talking was wasting time! They needed to act, fast… There had been another creature down there besides Bujin, Colbalt, and Omar… This one… He couldn't quite place it but it had a vague feeling to it… Though… It had moved so fast it was terrifying, and it definitely had not been trying to save them. Did Snicket know about this rogue creature?

Too much ran through the young hedgehog's mind, and he tried to shake it off, the meeting was ending. Tails, Shadow and the rest were walking towards him.

"Jazz… I know it must be hard for you… But we need to know what Omar is completely capable of. Tell us everything you saw." Tails asked him.

Jazz readjusted his black jacket, not surprised they were asking him. Perhaps he would tell… There was no reason to hope.

"He's faster. Stronger. And he's learned that dressing as someone else thing. Didn't know he could voice and act like that… He must have learned ta control his accent. And of course Bujin's telling him what ta do. Now that Julie can walk teh scientist seems more interested in her." Jazz became quiet, there was little more he could say.

"All right then…"

"But 'Dad' isn't teh only one ya need ta worry about. Neither is Colbalt in teh scientist… There's another…"

They turned back to look at him, he was shaking his head.

"What do you mean?" Shadow asked.

"There was another creature down there… It looked like… A dog of some sort." The hedge-fox said. "But it was… Different… It wasn't as fast as Omar… But it WAS stronger… By far…"

"Really? But I didn't think there were any others truly in the service of the crazed fox. There haven't been any reports…" Tails stopped, for Ash and Mina were conversing in hushed tones. "What? You know about this?" The two tailed fox asked them.

Mina looked at her boyfriend, nodding, her purple hair blowing in the wind now that they had walked outside.

"Yes, we don't know his name… Only that he's a blue dog. He never was part of our division. We asked him to join of course, but he refused. In fact… No one that has tried to battle him has lived… We tend to try to avoid him." The tattooed mongoose said, glancing toward his girlfriend.

"We have to report this to Snicket…" Without further word the two mongeese were off, running through the towns to find the leader of Organization 0.

Tails was pulled away by Brove, who wanted more answers to questions, curious and angered by his brother's actions. It wasn't long before Shadow and Jazz lost sight of them.

"Shadow."

The black hedgehog turned to Jazz, who wore a serious look on his face, yet a small smile as well.

"He didn't kill her."

"What do you mean? Foxbeast…"

"Mother lives. But she's in Bujin's 'care'. Teh body I buried was not hers. It looked like her, but teh scent was different. I understand now… Though he's turned and become nearly completely evil, insane, and is controlled by teh scientist… He didn't do it. It was one of Meiou's suits and masks. Teh smell of teh creature was that of someone that had been dead for a time already. He must have made it look like her…" The green hedge-fox was quite torn apart by this. Though, in a way… Happy… Perhaps his father could be saved from this madness after all…

"You mean… But… Hmm…" Shadow couldn't think of what to say about this, he had learned earlier that she was dead, and had accepted that fact. Now he was being told she was alive again…

"There isn't nothin' we can really do right now though. Come on, let's go find Snicket. See what this phantom dog is or whatever." Jazz said, breaking the silence.

It took them a few hours to locate the Organization's new temporary camp; they had set it on the outskirts of the city gates. They were pleased though, to find the foxes more then accommodating and the urge to want to repair the hovercrafts and ships was welcomed.

Jazz and Shadow came upon them bickering, the Organization apparently was VERY familiar with this rogue creature.

"…If he's working for that monster's money, there's no way in hell we out buy him! We don't have anyone who can face off against someone like that…"

"With that green hedgehog thing helping him, and Colbalt… This job is suicide!"

Snicket was trying to maintain a control over everyone's thoughts, but they were all in a frenzy, now that they knew that this person, whoever he was, was against them.

"Snicket! Snicket!" Jazz called through the crowds.

The ermine came to them, apparently very worried himself.

"Heya, how nice to see ya, it is it is… Uh… How fast ARE you really, really are you fast?" The white creature asked Jazz and Shadow.

"Of course we're fast, but why…" Shadow started.

"You think you can beat someone that's a rogue ninja, most powerful of a clan, beat him that is?!" The ermine's hair was a mess, he was just as worked up as the rest of his team.

"Most powerful of a clan? Are you serious?" Jazz asked, trying to believe they were joking. Creatures as such were kept quite secret by most clans.

"Naw, the Toothfairy, YES I'M SERIOUS, SERIOUS I AM!"

"Um… Well, perhaps we could, we've never fought one before I don't think…" Shadow said to him.

"Okay… Okay… Okay…!"

"Calm down, buddeh…! Just explain!"

Snicket looked at the two, shaking his head. Calling to Mina and Ash, he had the couple come over to them.

"This creature… You spoke of down there… We know him… Oh yes we do, we do. He does everything for the highest of prices, like us, but solitary. Like said, we asked him to work with us we did, so we did. But of course he refused he did. In fact… He's worked against us before, he did, yes…And he's very lazy. " The ermine said.

"And what happened?" Shadow asked.

"There used to be nearly seven times this number of us. Just one attack… That's all it took to push us away. Then a fury of more hellfire, and he was gone. He had taken our prize and stopped us all at once… The look of his red eyes…" Mina said, trailing off.

"Strangely, we know that he spared us that day… He could have annihilated us all. But for some reason he left all of us alive. We haven't figured that one out. But even so, we can't fight him. It'll just end up like before!" Ash said.

"That's why we want YOU to fight him. Not us, us we can't do so, do so we can't!" Snicket continued for his advisors.

"Us? And why do you think we can defeat him? Or at least hold him off right?"

"Hold him off no! You have to completely destroy him! So we don't have to deal with him anymore!" Snicket told them.

"Wait a second… So he's never really killed any of you without one of you all trying to shoot him then? So then why should we kill him? Holding him down seems fine." Shadow said.

"Well… If you CAN hold him that is…." The ermine muttered.

Suddenly a brown and rather good-looking weasel walked up to them. Carrying a slingshot and with a scar on his snout, he reminded them of Nack a bit.

"I'm sorry to disturb your wonderful meeting and all, but wouldn't it be of some intelligence to look to the sky?" He said to them in a nasily voice.

"What is it, Copper, it's not like we're under… attack…" Mina's voice trailed off as they looked to the sky, like he had suggested. It was black instead of the normal blue of this world.

All was quite it seemed, there were no sounds except the wind blowing through the trees, the birds and insects had quieted completely.

"No… It must be another attack…" Jazz said.

"We can't defend ourselves here, we have to get to the Quicktails, we must go to them, yes! Defend better inside walls we can, we can!" Snicket quickly ordered his teams to pack up and head for the fox's gates.

Within minutes they were within the cities walls, but the sky had only gotten darker, and the wind harder. The was beginning to grow cold, like ice. The assorted mongeese, weasel's and ermine had lined themselves up by the entrance to the city, guns, bombs, and weapons at the ready, though the look on their faces showed fear.

Shadow and Jazz looked to the one called Copper, who had walked in on them earlier. He looked at the now dark woods with apprehension.

"There's no doubt he's with them…" The weasel said, shaking his head.

"They have it here, we must see to our own as well." The black hedgehog said to Jazz, who nodded.

The pair took off through the city as the cold wind came faster, the smell of death seemingly on the air. It didn't take them long to get to the imperial courts, where Tail's was informing Brove of the soon to be attack. Atlantis, Maria, Oracle, and Spike were with them.

"As vast as our army is, we will only just be able to keep an attack by these beings back. Is there anything else we need to watch for?" The two-tailed fox of royalty was saying.

"Yeah, a rogue ninja, the strongest of a clan, and who know's how many of our own Bujin has turned as well?!" Shadow said to him, the heat of battle coming to him. It was time to make the scientist pay.

Brove nodded. "We've moved as many as we could to the boats on the other side of the city, if we're breached, they'll immediately set off with all civilians. Cobalt must not take more alive to manipulate. I suspect… That though Bujin may seem head of the operation, my brother may be the one we're truly after now."

The fire of guns and lasers broke out in the distance, and they all turned to look to the gates. The battle had once again begun.


	18. Chapter 18

The wind grew harder as the army of foxes and mongeese waited, for who knows what the scientist had cooked up. Jazz had ran back to stay with the small armada, no doubt Shadow was probably wondering where he had disappeared to. But the green hedge-fox was not about to miss his chance to catch and turn his father.

The others around him were huddling nervously next to their weapons. They had seen what had come before, and were terrified. And before they knew it, IT had arrived. Bujin.

The creature was no longer even hedgehog anymore as it came to the gates, ramming against them with its head, blood smearing. It had so much machinery and extra cloned body parts from other creatures calling 'he' an 'it' was more appropriate. Besides, like Brove had said, Bujin was no longer the brains of the operation, nor did he seem to have any for that matter. Bujin was on chains, which lead into the woods, where a horrid clanking sound was loudening.

As the creature strained against the metal holding it back on it's legs, arms, and neck, it roared, saliva dripping from it's now dinosaur-like jaws. "Killll…. You…. Alllll…!!" It hissed and banged on the gates more.

Suddenly, what the monster was attached to became visible as it tore down the trees in its wake. It was a giant machine, much like the ones they had seen before, except this one was built like a tank, for war, not capture. And at the top of it, was Cobalt.

"How are you all today? I was just in for a lovely stroll in the woods… When I happen to come across you all? Let's say we play a little game?" The white two-tailed fox asked as he stopped his machine for a moment. Jazz looked around, his father suddenly appeared at the fox's right side, sneering. At the other, the strange ninja dog that he had seen only once before.

Now that it was in the 'light' or as light as it could get with the darkened sky, he could see that the ninja dog was blue, with a shocking green hair. He had a light red coat on, and shoes, but other then that, no armor or extra defenses at all. None was needed.

"This little game, it's quite fun! Oh have you met my… Well, Omar…" Cobalt gestured at the green hedgehog. "…Is more of a servant really… And…" The white fox nodded at the Ninja Dog "Kight is more of a hired hand. Now Bujin of course, he's definitely a pet to this point. Had to keep him from hurting himself, so I made some adjustments to his mind." The fox cackled in his laugh, apparently enjoying himself.

Jazz stared at the creature that used to be Bujin… Was that what was in store for his father if he continued to be controlled by the new crazed scientist? Sure the insane hedgehog that had tortured many others in a way deserved this, his own medicine… But Omar… The young green hedgehog looked up at him, his father's eyes seemed glazed, as if he wasn't really paying attention.

The fox interrupted Jazz's thoughts again. "But anyway, this talking is getting boring. Let's start the game shall we? Those who escape, are free to run another day… And those I catch…" Another machine like the previous bulk enslavers they had seen crushed the trees to be up beside the one the fox was standing on. The wires and utensils used for capturing clicked and whirred impatiently. "Can play some more with me in my lab!"

The two that had been standing next to the fox disappeared suddenly, and the time had come. "Fire! FIRE DAMMIT!" He heard Snicket yell, but it was late, far too late. Already Bujin had used his full strength to burst through the gates, allowing his master to follow through with the machines from hell.

As the battle began, Jazz knew something was up. Neither the ninja dog, nor his father had joined the fight. They were no where to be seen.

The foxes were putting up a gallant fight with the Organization to fight for their land. Cobalt's weapons were having difficulty getting through, the huge tanks were just barely being held back. The Quicktails warriors wielded everything from machine guns to armored buses loaded with missiles. They weren't doing much damage for the shields Cobalt had, but they were keeping him back.

As Jazz turned to go find out where the other two had gone to, a missile hit the crazed monster that once was Bujin. He was not protected, and within seconds, gone. The green hedge-fox nodded, a grim end for a grim and maniacal creature. He sped off.

Back at the main building, Shadow, Maria, Tails, Meiou and Flick waited, as Brove had instructed them to before leaving to lead his armada. "The white fox will have another plan other then just attacking… Stay and watch the palace, he may be after a royal official." The fox had said, and then was off.

"Awww… when are we going home daddy?" Maria asked Shadow.

"Soon I think." Shadow said, running a hand through her golden quills.

She giggled, then stopped and looking up to the ceiling, she waved. "Hi!"

The group went to look up but quickly stopped looking to instead shield themselves from the glass as it broke. The black hedgehog pulled his daughter close in his arms. No one was going to take her this time.

There were two thuds on either side of the group, Omar and Kight landing in the ballroom without flinching from the height of the jump. A few seconds later they were followed by a third, Jazz. It hadn't taken the hedge-fox long to spot them jumping from building to building with ease, heading for the castle.

Jazz joined his uncle and the rest, they would need all the help they could get if these two were after them, why else would the white fox had sent them here instead of the battle in the front?

"Give us the foxes… The rest of you may stay and await Cobalt's arrival." The ninja dog said, betraying no weakness in his voice.

"C'mon, don't ya wanta come with us? He promises ta be nice ta ya!" Omar said, his limbs twitching in a random sequence.

Shadow pushed Maria towards Meiou, facing the dog. "Don't let anyone touch her…" He muttered to the rabbit.

Jazz faced his father, knowing full well this could end up with one or all of them dead. But it was the only way.

Tails moved forward to fight, but the ebon hedgehog shoved him back.

"It's you and Flick they want, stay put and out of the way." He said, eyeing his opponent. The dog stared at him, a lazy yet deadly air flowing about him.

"You aren't having them." Shadow said.

"Oh really? Guess we'll have to take them, always the hard way." Kight wasn't giving them a choice, he was waiting for them to make a move though.

"Well that's too bad. We aren't giving them to either of you." The hedgehog said. He could wait as long as the other.

"Well, I have a job to do." The dog had decided not to wait. He feinted a move, and Shadow fell for it. The hedgehog rushed at him, and missed, as was intended. It left an opening. Kight landed a blow to his head as he went by, then another as Shadow tried to turn to fight back.

Dazed for a moment, Shadow tried to aim a punch at his adversary, but already the dog was behind him, knocking him down with a flurry of kicks at his legs.

Omar chose to make his attack shortly after the dog's, speeding around and around the group with speed if not faster equal to Sonic the hedgehog's.

His son was the only one not effected by the dizzy spell of trying to follow the quick movements. Jazz moved closer to Tails and Flick, now that he knew what they were after. With Shadow now unconscious, they had lost a tactical advantage. A large one. And… The two had said if they gave up the foxes freely they would be allowed to go. Now that they had put up a fight, most likely they would take them all to the scientist.

Jazz waited, timing his aim. Suddenly he threw his leg out into his father's path of whirlwind running. The green-furred hedgehog tripped, the timing perfect. Omar fell to the floor, but his speed kept him going, and he sped in his slide as he hit the wall. He moved as if to get up, then fell back, out cold. Or at least Jazz hoped that was all.

Now, the hedge-fox turned to another attack. But as fast as he was he was too slow. A heavy weight landed upon his back, the ninja dog! "Ya're no special! Just as living as us…!" Jazz tried to get up, but Kight hit him down again.

"The floor is better for your health at the moment." The dog said as he turned to go after the foxes.

Jazz again tried to rise, but he couldn't and this time it wasn't because of his adversary. His leg had twisted and broken when he had put it in motion to stop his father. Now he couldn't even stand.

"No! Stop!" He yelled.

The dog didn't even look back. He just kept going. Until he saw Shade.

"What are YOU doing here? You were told to stay at the base!" He said. Something wasn't right. Not only was the hedgehog supposed to have stayed behind, he was mingling with the group he was after.

"Cobalt called for me to make sure you didn't screw things up. You seem to be doing a good job though, there wasn't no need for him to worry really." Shade the hedgehog said.

The dog didn't answer to that, but he didn't move either. Something really was wrong… He talked like Shade… Or the Shade after Cobalt had 'played' with him. But still…

The other's still didn't seem afraid of him, even after he said that. They were acting it, but he could tell that that's all it was. An act… And where was that red rabbit?! He had mysteriously disappeared as well, as the girl hedgehog had.

"Whatever." Kight said, acting convinced as he made his way to the foxes.

"I got it Uncle Meiou!"

Jazz watched as the dog turned to see Maria run up to Shade with a Chaos Emerald.

"Thank you sweetie. Now, go play with Uncle Tails for a while, please?" The ebon hedgehog said to the little girl.

"Okay." She skipped up to the foxes and stood with them, while 'Shade' smiled.

The hedgehog quickly pulled off the mask and became a rabbit, it was Meiou. He dropped the mask onto the floor, reaching behind him and undoing the zipper, pulled the suit of Shade off of him.

"My calculations were correct then, Shade has also been turned and is being controlled. Shadow will be unhappy to hear that." The rabbit looked at the still unconscious black hedgehog on the floor.

The dog wasn't listening to the rabbit, he was looking at the chaos emerald. A jewel with untapped energy. The beings who could use them would gain enormous unique powers, he had seen it before. This job had taken long enough already.

The dog did a sideways flip to the foxes, grabbing the one that was closest to him. Flick. The only reason the fox had sent two of them was to carry one apiece, he would leave with what was expected of him. Leaping higher then any normal creature his size should be able to, he bounced up off the walls and out the ceiling window from where he'd came.

Meiou went to follow, but Tails stopped him.

"You can't catch him. You know it. He's too fast. Besides, we have another to deal with." The orange fox pointed to Omar, who was beginning to stir.

"But Flick!" Jazz yelled, still on the floor.

"We can't catch him, and neither can you, with your leg like that. Besides… Flick isn't stupid. Learning from me, he has a tracker in him, and a built in phone on his ears and jaw. As long as Cobalt forgets to scan him, he'll be an insider. He wants us to be his aids anyway." Tails finished.

"That's still a big 'IF'." Meiou said.

"Let's hope that Flick made them less detectable then the last then."


	19. Chapter 19

The crazed fox scientist was getting closer, for he had a slight advantage, just a bit more power then the Mobiuns and Quicktails he fought. Flick noticed this as he was carried away towards the crazed fox, but why was this creature that had him working for Cobalt? Surely he knew that the white fox would turn on him and do the same as he had done to Bujin, who had become a soulless, insane monster.

Suddenly, the dog carrying him stopped, he wasn't even past the invisible border. He turned to see if anyone was following him, then looked at Flick, surprised that the fox was silent and unresisting.

Instead of going on, Kight leapt to the forest floor, looking as if he was waiting for someone. Flick tilted his head at his captor, but the gesture of curiosity went unnoticed, or ignored.

There was a blast of light nearby, a bright blue and blinding almost. When it disappeared, a small golden-furred hedgehog stood in its place. Maria. In her hand was the chaos emerald from before. Chaos Control. The dog stared at her, this was not who he had been waiting for, why was she here?

"I came to play with Flick! Is he done with the dentist yet?" She asked, skipping toward them.

To the left of them, came what the dog had been waiting for, the scientist, and a tank similar to the ones he had been riding, but smaller, small enough to go unnoticed with the other ones rampaging. It tore through the forest, leveling trees and plants. Headed straight for them.

Kight leapt out of the way quickly. But looked down, and saw the little hedgehog. She wasn't moving. Just staring.

The dog didn't hesitate; he leapt back down, grabbing her as well and leaping back to his place in the trees that weren't in the way.

Cobalt stopped the machine in front of his tree, glaring.

"I WANTED to run her over. Put her back down. She's annoying!" The white fox said to him, pouting it seemed.

Kight seemed to think for a minute, looking at Maria, then the fox.

"You're mean!" Maria stuck her tongue out at Cobalt and blew a raspberry at him.

"Well?" The fox waited, expecting the dog to put her down; after all, he was the one paying him.

"No."

"Good then… …. WHAT?!" The fox started, looking up at him in shock. He had said… no?

"You're mean!" He mimicked Maria and stuck her tongue at him, to the golden hedgehog's pleasure. She giggled.

"You… YOU… YOU'RE SUPPOSED TO WORK FOR ME!" The fox appeared to be having a tantrum. But it wasn't all words. He got back into this tank, disappearing under a hatch. The machine reared up, aimed at the trio. But it was too late. They were already gone.

Jazz stood up, sighing. While coming back to report to them about the battle, Mina had healed his leg right up. It was some sort of magic, but the green hedge-fox didn't care. It fixed it, and that's all he cared about.

Now she was reviving Shadow, but it was taking longer then they had thought. Omar would be last, as they had chained him up to the wall just in case he tried to get away.

Tails didn't seem to be to worried about Flick, until he almost slapped himself as he remembered that the poor fox was a mute, and that the only thing that the gray and red fox's phone was useful for was for relaying background sounds around him.

Meiou had taken Maria out to get something to eat, but now he came running back into the ballroom where they had all been staying, panicked.

"She's gone! She just grabbed the Chaos Emerald out of my bag and disappeared, saying she was going to go play with Flick! I didn't even have time to stop her!" The dark furred rabbit said, pulling at her ears. "I didn't even KNOW she knew Chaos Control!"

Jazz thought for a second, then leapt up through the already broken glass ceiling to go after her. If Shadow woke up to find his daughter missing, he would go berserk.

The hedge-fox leapt easily from tree to tree, keeping his senses alert for any sign of the girl. She couldn't have teleported far… Could she? She didn't even know where the fox and his captor had been going after all.

He stopped, flicking his large fox ears side to side. What was that he heard? Yes it was her, but she was laughing… She must have been heading away from the battle, she wouldn't be laughing if she saw that.

Jazz turned toward the direction, and his jaw dropped. It was the ninja dog again! He was about a mile away across the tree tops, but Jazz had no trouble seeing him, especially with the eyes he'd inherited from his father. Bujin had given him a combination of hawk eyes and owl eyes. They were… heading back towards the ball room. Jazz narrowed his eyes in suspicion, and followed them.

This time Kight used a side door instead of the ceiling. If he wasn't out to shock and surprise them, then why destroy too much of their stuff? Walking into the ballroom, Shadow was just beginning to wake up, the first thing he saw was his previous adversary mongoose holding Maria's hand.

The black hedgehog looked confused for a second, the ran for her. Kight immediately let go of her hand and backed off. The fox wasn't paying him to bother them anymore, so why start a fight? Anyway, he was going to give that fox something to REALLY worry about later…

Flick, who had walked in next to him, ran over to Tails, and in a quick display of expert charades, explained what had happened. Sort of. There was an extra part about him attacking the scientist that none of them believed for a second.

They continued to stare at Kight suspiciously, until Jazz came in through the same door not too far behind him.

"Teh white fox… Seems ta be having a fit, and is now being beaten back. He can't concentrate, with his two side-arms gone it seems." The hedge-fox said, snickering. He didn't flinch or seemed disturbed by the blue ninja dog's presence at all, and the others began to relax.

"Well, we had better go wake Omar up then. See if we can fix him." Shadow said, heading toward the room where they had locked the green hedgehog up, Maria trailing behind him.

The other's followed him, and after a shake of his head, Kight as well.

Tails, having lived there before, used the code that opened the door, and they found that they didn't need to wake the hedgehog up, he was no longer sleeping. But he wouldn't look at them either, nor would he speak.

"Omar." Shadow said.

He didn't say anything, his eyes averted onto the floor. He wasn't even fighting against the chains…

"Omar!"

Nothing.

"Dad…?" Jazz said, trying not to hope too much.

The chained hedgehog's ears pricked for a moment, but then dropped back down. He sighed.

"Just leave me alone." Omar said, still not looking up.

Shadow, Mina, Kight, Meiou, Maria, Tails, and Flick all left out, but Jazz stayed for a bit longer. There was a long paused before either of them spoke.

"Ya mother is locked away in Cobalt's base, along with Shade an' teh others. Out of all of them, only a few were just 'locked away'. Teh rest are in a separate area of teh base, Cobalt's play things. They're guarded only by teh same machines, not much else. Shade is like I was, a slave. He thinks teh fox is a parent. Gettin' in won't be a problem, gettin' out will. It has many defenses for an escapee, from lasers to electric shock traps." The green furred hedgehog finished, and wouldn't say anymore.

"So… Teh knock on teh head brought ya back?" Jazz asked his father, still standing.

Omar didn't say anything for a moment, then nodded.

"Next time… Don't stop at that. If that hadn't knocked meh out, teh outcome would have been worse. Finish meh."

Jazz shook his head, not knowing what to say. Truly his father was back, but he wasn't asking for death at the moment, just if the fox turned him again. He only wanted to live, until he had seen the captured to safety.

"Could ya do meh a favor, though I shouldn't beh asking…" Omar started. "Pull these chains off of meh so I can help ya'll."

"They won't trust ya. I'm not sure I do at teh moment." Jazz replied.

"Ya don't have ta. I don't expect ya to. I'll go alone. For all teh fox knows, I'm still in his control."

Jazz looked behind him to make sure no one would see. He knew it was a risk, a high one at that. His father could still be in the control of the fox, just acting like he had returned to his old self. But then again… An insider, even Omar at that… It would be invaluable.

He knelt down and with a blast of chaos power to each of the lengths, severed the chains from the wall, leaving the shackles and about two feet metal chain attached to the arm-lengths. The legs he did more easily, leaving the shackles alone on the legs.

Omar stood up, though he was taller then his son and could have looked down at him easily, he hunched, making himself shorter, looking still looking away. But then, he DID look into Jazz's eyes.

"I will free them. Ya have meh word upon that." The hedgehog turned, and with a blast of energy, blew away the bars from the window. He didn't look back as he leapt out, and Jazz watched him speed away from the palace.


	20. Chapter 20

"You let him LOOSE?!" Shadow yelled at Jazz, as the green hedge-fox came back into the main room upstairs.

"Yes, I did. He seems ta be back, and an insider will be invaluable. Even if he ain't back, we can't kill em' anyway. Could we really live with that, if Mother was to live? Ta tell her what happened ta him? We must act as if nothin' has happened with him, ta fool teh scientist." Jazz nodded, having known to expect such an attitude towards him. There was no other way.

The only ones available at the moment in the room were Jazz, Shadow, Mina, and Tails. Where the others were, they weren't sure, most likely helping the armies regroup they assumed. Shadow had allowed Kight and Flick to watch Maria, after the golden hedgehog had begged him to let them play hide-and-seek with her.

"He is right though. Even wrong this is a great opportunity. We can't let it pass. I'll tell Brove to organize a rescue party, which to Colbalt will appear suicide most likely." Tails continued for Jazz.

"And it very well will be, if Omar hasn't changed." Shadow said with glance at his nephew before walking out of the room to fetch Maria.

"Will he forgive him?" Mina asked the hedge-fox.

Jazz shook his head, for he didn't know, when coming to making mistakes and forgiving, Shadow was hard on a person, even after what he had done himself. But still… It would be interesting indeed, to see how the ebon hedgehog treated Omar after all this.

As Shadow walked along in the hallway, he suddenly ran into someone, to busy stewing over the things in his mind to be paying attention too much to where he was walking.

"Watch where you're walking, Spine-head!" The black rabbit retorted at him having fallen on the floor with him.

"Abyss?" He asked, surprised and momentarily distracted from his main thoughts.

"Hmmm Shadow is it? Yeah, didn't think you'd see me again now did you?" She said, getting up and shaking her ears about, her many earrings twinkling in the light.

"What are you doing here?" He said, a bit touchy.

"Oooh, still got an attitude hunh? Well, me and Snow and Betu met up with this cat and weird hedgehog after we left the ark, and they brought us up here. Plenty of work to be found, and partying too. Currently I was duped into playing hide-and-seek…" She said, looking around and starting to walk off.

"Cat and weird hedgehog?" Shadow asked, following her, if she was playing a game with Maria she would eventually lead him to her.

"Yeah, Blaze and Silver their names were. Wait a second…" She muttered. They had entered a room with cabinets and such, like a kitchen almost but larger in design.

Maria suddenly appeared from the door across the room, and seeing them, put a finger to her lips and went 'shhhhhhhh!' before disappearing again. Shadow made a move to go get her, but Abyss held him back and shook her head. The rabbit moved towards the cabinets and opened one of the doors at random.

Nothing. Wherever Kight was he was hiding good.

"So what's up?" The rabbit asked him.

"We're preparing to go out and 'rescue' the ones that have been captured. It's suicide though, insane." Shadow said.

"Why so?" She asked.

"They think that Omar has defected back to us. A simple blow to the head? I don't think so, and even if he has, I still don't trust him. Not anymore."

Brove stood up from his seat at the table council. He wasn't about to take such a matter lightly, for, like Shadow, he was having a hard time believing that Omar had turned so quickly. Not only that, but from the information, Shade had become a slave to his brother as well. Who would go upon the rescue operation? Certainly Shadow was a candidate, but if his son was turned, what would his reaction be in the battle? And what if the situation was worse then they all expected?

"For those to go, I have decided that any may volunteer, but Shadow. He must stay behind. There is no way we can allow him to endanger such an already delicate operation. The chance for succeeding is already too low." The royal, two tailed fox said.

The battle room had maps and such upon the walls, and a large round table. A holograph was in the middle of the table picturing a view of Cobalt's base, the satellite being able to transmit through dimensions and space.

"He won't be easy upon such a matter. He'll fight to go. I'm not even sure if any of us have to the power to restrain him upon such a thing. We may very well have to allow it." Tails interrupted him, his own royal air coming about. He had never told them, not about his origin. He was a cousin to Brove, though somewhat distant.

"Who are we to stop him? It's his son. He's done the same in the past, for him and Maria. We must let him go." Jazz argued from standing in a corner. He hadn't talked much, not after the confrontation with his father.

The rest of the council looked at him, including Brove, Tails, Mina, Snicket, and Copper. The Organization 0 had decided to stay and aid them, this battle would effect everyone and they couldn't fight it alone, the Quicktails.

"Wouldn't ya do teh same if they were yaur own family that ya loved?" Jazz said, looking directly at Brove.

It hit the fox hard, he knew what he was talking about. Cobalt was insane, and evil, and couldn't be saved, because it was his own choice. But Shade and Omar were unwillingly pulled into this mess. They didn't have a choice. And it was because of his brother.

"Shadow may go then. Besides, he isn't of our clan. We can't restrain him anyway." Brove said.

"Now that that's decided, I have something to say. Ash, Mina, and Copper wish to go, and I approve." Snicket announced.

Brove looked to him, and nodded, he had no say so over them either. And what's more they had had many losses in aiding the Quicktails, they were deeply in their debt.

Mina didn't say anything, but she had taken up a new appearance, thanks to the foxes. She was a healer, and now she had the robes of one, long and brown, though through the robes, her underclothing remained the same. Her other profession was singing, but now was not the time, the time for that would be after the fight.

Copper only nodded, knowing his kind wasn't usually placed with trust, being weasels. The organization had given their race another chance at that, though some of his kind preferred being thieves then honest work.

"Alright, who else? I must stay, as Flick. The systems and shields must be repaired in case of another attack. They were completely destroyed." Tails started again.

"I'll be goin'." Jazz muttered, still acting as if he were not really paying attention.

Meiou entered the room, along with Shadow, Maria, Kight and Abyss. They hadn't missed a word of the conference, for the red rabbit had 'borrowed' one of Tails bugs and had placed it on Brove. The fox didn't know this of course, but was utterly suspicious of how they already were up to date on everything.

"We're all goin', accept for Maria of course. Betu and Snow will watch her, he's more then capable." Abyss said, winking at Shadow, who nodded at her.

"It's decided then, you all shall go. On this cursed mission. My hopes that you return however. I apologize for this… We should have destroyed him when we still had the chance…" Brove said, sitting back down, shaking his head.

"Ya couldn't have, as I couldn't have meh father. Things like this, ya can't predict, just deal with them." Jazz muttered before leaving. The rest of the party followed him, they had to leave as soon as possible for they're journey.


	21. Chapter 21

The journey to the portal of course was uneventful, as was half of the trip to Cobalt's base on the other side. But all cannot go smoothly. Shadow of course had teken the lead of the party, as was his nature, he felt responsible for all the others, even if most of them were seasoned fighters.

Occasionally he'd glance back, catching someone's eye, most often it was Jazz, who was not too far behind him but far enough, staring at him, and the green hedge-fox would quickly look away. He'd already gotten on his uncle's bad side, he didn't want to go farther and start a fight, a fight he doubted he would win.

Copper had teken to walking with Jazz as everyone else had grouped up, and seeminly left him alone, the weasel knew how that felt, and wouldn't be surprised if he saw more of his kind in the future, hired by the fox. Though his attempts at chat were not rewarded with talk, he did receive a smile now and then, to know the hedge-fox was grateful.

Meiou and Abyss were just behind them, riding on the supply wagon, a specialized hovercraft that Tails had built for the Quicktails previously. It was a thick heavy craft, but carried a lot, and was armored like a tank. The two were in deep hushed conversation, obviously they were making extra plans in case things went wrong.

In the back left the mongeese and dog to protect the rear of the group, Ash, Mina, and Kight. Ash and Kight were busy arguing, while Mina just stared back and forth, each on the either side of her, each holding one of her hands. Both the males had insisted on carrying her two medical bags, and though Mina had known Ash for quite a long time, she had to admit that Kight was the one winning her heart at the moment.

"Shouldn't you two be paying attention in case someone attacks from behind the group?" Mina asked the two.

Ash looked slightly ashamed of himself and let go of her hand, while the ninja saw this as an opportunity.

"I can multitask, now as I was saying, your eyes are just beautiful in this dark light and..."

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They were nearly halfway there, when Shadow stopped in his tracks, his ears flicking back and forth, as Jazz did a second later after him. Both the hedgehog's had super hearing, it didn't take much for them to notice something was not quite right, even in a world so strange.

The monsters of the world were leaving them alone, because they were an armored caravan, or at least that's what they thought, that or one of their party were giving off a very powerful predator scent, but if that was so then who?

But again, even with the monsters leaving them alone, someone, or something was nearing them.

Jazz sniffed the air, it smelling familiar, but somehow alien, it did not fit to this world. He glanced at his uncle, and nodded slightly, whatever this was they weren't going to take a chance at it being an enemy.

Shadow made a leap at them as the two forms came out of the bushes, knocking both down under him. The ebon hedgehog glared at them for a minute, then let them up, shaking his head. They already had enough people to worry about, now an extra cat and hedgehog?

The two were not strangers to him, but to the others yes. The strangely dressed pair, in brown robes and boots were Silver the hedgehog and Blaze the cat. Silver wore sunglasses, and had tattoos that the Knuckles Tribe had given him when he had visited them on his quills.

The white hedgehog smiled nervously at the group, disturbed by Shadow's glare. Blaze sighed and smiled as well, Jazz was wearing a small grin behind his black jacket, he had gotten used to his uncle's reaction to people.

"What do you want?" Shadow asked them.

"We were going to contact you, but it seems that your transmitters are being blocked, someon obviously knowns you're coming. But anyway, Brove seemed to think it important to have more than one healer in your group, what if Mina becomes injured, she'll need back up." The purple cat said.

"And you?" Shadow turned to Silver.

"I'm here to protect Blaze of course!" He answered, his smile leaving as Shadow's hard stare remained.

"Whatever." Shadow continued walking, and the rest followed, the two newcomers falling in place behind Jazz and Copper.

This changes nothing, the black hedgehog thought, we already figured he knew we were coming. It's our only choice, though it's just stupid to walk into this trap, but with no other way... Shade... Foxy... and even Rouge. Shadow's thoughts wandered and he shook his head, he couldn't think the worst of things, if he did what was to become of him...?

The weather had been fair for the planet they were on, no rain, though as always the sky remained dark, and the wind was beginning to blow harshly, endlessly.

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According to a maps that Tails and Flick had made for them, they were nearly there, and as they made it to the top of a rocky hill, they saw what it overlooked. The facility, Shadow realized, was not unlike Bujin's. But if the same was true to this monster's mentor, with this big of a facility on the surface, the underground part of the building must be enormous. The crazed hedgehog's underground lab had been nearly seven times the size of his above ground hangers, which had been about the size of a small human gas station. This seeable building, was about the size of four large hospitals, towers and all. The buildings were white colored, bright, searchlights, metal gates, armored vehicles, huge robotic guards, and non robotic slaves, all were busy working and carrying out the insane fox's will.

Shadow pulled out his binoculars, as did the rest of the group, and watched as the hug robotic creatures that they had seen previously burning and taking captives at their home were still not completely emptied and sort though, as Cobalt's slaves were taking the last of them out to be put in cells and await their torture no doubt.

Jazz pointed and Shadow turned his attention to one. None of the captives were recognizable to him, accept this one, Rouge. She was kicking and screaming and putting up a fight as the robot slaves pulled her out and cuffed her, then stuck something in her too small to be seen, a needle most likely. She immediatly stopped fighting, falling into a sleep, and the robots dragged her inside.

The giant ships closed up, the bat having been the last of their captives, and using a propulsion system, flew over the buildings and to the other sides, what appeared to be a docking bay. The robot guards went back to their original posts, awaiting more orders.

Putting the binoculars down, Shadow continued to stare at the massive buildings, memories of his previous torture by the deceased Bujin coming to his head. Jazz put a hand on his shoulder and shook him, and he glared at his nephew.

"Sit'n and stare'n like that, for nearly ten minutes now. Come on we gotta go!" The young green hedge-fox said.

Shadow nodded, but then shrugged the boy's hand off him. He still hadn't forgiven him for letting Omar go.

Then, Jazz pointed again, to the other side of the canyon that the facilities were housed in. There was a light in the cliffs, and not a natural one. It was too far from the base to be one of the crazed fox's. The light flickered back and forth, on and off. Jazz ran to the back of the party and pulled the dog up to the front.

He stared at the light for a moment, then pulled out a shuriken, and aimed it against the sky, shining the light back in a reflect.

The light on the other side stopped flickering, and then after a moment, went out completely. Jazz took out his binoculars again, looking back down to the base's entrance. A green furred hedgehog stood there now, and as guards opened the gate for him, he turned on them and tore them to shreds, using his sword nearly the same size, though differently styled, then Dante's. It was Omar.

After taking care of the robots, the hedgehog turned and looked up to them briefly, nodding. Omar then proceeded to pull out the gate's functional systems, leaving it open as he began to race up and down the buildings, disabling the firing systems and more robots.

Jazz looked away from his binoculars and at Shadow, who had also been watching like he.

"I still don't trust him. Let's go." The black hedgehog started down the hill-like mountain as fast pace.

Jazz attached himself to the supply wagon, and pulled it down, if the hill hadn't been at such an incline he wouldn't have had the strength to do it, while everyone else rode on top of it. When they got to the near bottom, he realized they were going far too fast.

Silver, who was busy holding on for dear life, let loose a blast of his psychic powers, slowing them down, and at the same time leveling them out, though they were still going fast enough to just barely keep up with Shadow, who had by now reached the gates.

They halted there for the moment, as Omar sped up to them, or just to Jazz more it seemed. The green hedgehog was keeping a respectable distance from Shadow. He knew his brother-in-law had a temper, and was not about to catch the bad side of it.

"Teh automatic attack systems are all down, as are most of teh gates. But there is much ta fear beyond robotic weapons. Half beings, experiments, gene manipulated creatures, part of teh fox's slaves are all under his control. This one is more intelligent than Bujin." Omar said. He glanced at Shadow with a somewhat frightened look, then pulled Jazz close and whispered in his ear. The hedge-fox couldn't betray his emotions as his eyes became wide, and then nodded at his father.

Omar took a last glance at his son and Shadow, then sped off, back into the building, before any of the could stop him.

Shadow turned and glared at Jazz, who appeared stricken for a moment, then met his eyes. Instead of asking, the ebon hedgehog turned back to the gate entrance.

"Something has already happened to them both, I see, though you won't tell it to me, as Omar wouldn't." He paused for a moment then took off into the base.


	22. Chapter 22

"We can't let him go alone, onward!" Meiou said, breaking the silence, still on his spot on the supply wagon, which they began unloading.

"Leave the entire wagon itself here, besides there isn't anything the scientist has that's more than this." Abyss said, as she pulled a large weapon out of the pile, placing it on her shoulder, now having a rocket launcher.

The two rabbits quickly dispersed the weapons between the group, multiple guns, small knives, and bombs all courtesy of either the Quicktails or the Organization. Already it seemed that the scientist's forces were beginning to regroup.

Jazz himself took only a small gun, but nothing else, immdediatly following his uncle into the base. If Shadow arrived upon what Omar had described to him before he could, he would lose it. The crazed fox had taken advantage of the green hedgehog being away, and had had fun manipulating his two main captives. And what was more, he had given them a secondary master, one that Shadow was most likely familiar with, Scourge the hedgehog.

It had been ages since any of them had seen the evil hedgehog, or for that matter Fiona the fox. But apparently both of them were here, and of their free will at that. Now ridden with experiments and such to make them even stronger, the pair had been the replacements just in case Dante and Omar had been taken out or defected. And they had, which the the fox expected; he had never trusted them in the first place, even with Omar being his first mind control experiment.

Already Cobalt was beginning the cycle again, teaching Fiona most of what he knew, but not all of it, for that was Bujin's mistake, teaching his pupil all. If the female fox was to rebel, her master would be ready to stop her.

It didn't take Jazz long to catch up to his uncle, who had mett a barricade of creatures that his father had explained about. Experiments, now controlled by the scientist, but old friends, of the Rubieteau and Doralien.

Jazz knew Shadow couldn't attack them, they were not under their own will, yet they were still there, somewhere... How could he harm such pitiful cretures?

Suddenly the experimented onces stopped, parting to reveal a green hedgehog, wearing a black jacket.

"Omar...?!" Shadow began.

Jazz put a hand to his uncles arm again. This was not the green hedge-fox's father. "No."

The green hedgehog chuckles maniacally for a moment, then stepped into a bit of the little light there was. He had on the jacket like Omar, but instead of gold buttons it was flame embroidered, and he wore glasses, like Jazz, though a different, red color. He grinned at them, his elongated fangs showing.

"Did you really think you could get away with just attacking blindly? Your rescue mission is futile, with all of them under our control. Hmmm.... Come now, why dontcha fight my prized pets?" The green hedgehog waved a hand, and two beings came from the darkness of the room.

The two creatures were no longer normal, even more abnormal then the others around them, with their fangs, claws, talons, spines and yellow glowing eyes. Tattoos, markings, and scars covered them, showing signs of heavy experimentation, the only clothes they were left wearing was what seemed an old body suit that was torn and shreeded at the back, legs, and arms. They prowled hunched over, growling and hissing. Shadow and Jazz could barely make out who they had been previously. Foxy and Shade.

**************************************************************************************

Omar had returned to the group briefly after Jazz and Shadow had left, but only to one of them. He handed a small device to the red rabbit, Meiou.

"This will open any of teh doors on teh base, even if teh fox changes teh codes. It wasn't easy ta pickpocket him. Everything else, you'll have ta fight though yourself, though if ya have a stunny it would be helpful." The green hedgehog pointed to one of the large bubble machines that had been used before to attack their home.

"As horrible as it seems, with all teh bodies and captives in there, that ship I've hotwired, and use it ta transport them, once you've caught them back. If necessary, ya can seal them in it, and move them until they've reached their right mind." The hedgehog finished.

The rabbit nodded at him, and watched as he took off again. The poor hedgehog was reaching his breaking point, even most of his accent had left him, and the rabbit knowing what waited inside for Shadow and Jazz, none of them might not survive this, but Omar most of all.

"Good luck..." Meiou said after him.

The rabbit turned back to the rest of them, without Shadow, shockingly it was Abyss who was taking the lead. The black rabbit had rounded the groupd up, and gone to the front, and was beginning to job at a reasonable pace, which they were all now following.

Meiou had taken his small sword, but other than that, nothing but his backpack, which contained some of the most accurate, and recent disguises he had created. If it came to it, he knew how he could handle his old student...

Meiou had taken to running right behind Abyss, and then next to her, and they smiled at each other, perhaps one crazed student didn't mean he couldn't rain another, and this one be sane.

Again, the mongeese were in the back of the groupd, though Mina was in front of the two males now, who, though now serious because they were on a mission, were glaring at each other.

Copper, Silver, and Blaze were now running together in the middle of the group, the weasel and hedgehog protecting the cat. Silver's giddiness was gone, the air of danger about, and his eyes glowed as he glanced around as he ran, sensing for a coming attack.

Copper had grabbed a gun for a weapon, and was watching carefully, he could smell an old adversary nearby, Fang was close...

It wasn't too far into the base that they encountered resistance. But this, was not experiments, not the leaders, as Omar had said were the most numbered. Hired hands. A hyena and weasel appeared in front of them as they entered what appeared to be a small hanger, its ceiling high and domed, with vareious ships in it. Like outside of the buildings, the interiors were all white.

Coppper growled, he had been correct, Fang. But who was this other one?

Fang the sniper smirked, then snapped his fingers, and half a score of weasels appeared behind him, coming from behind different ships and boxes. Unholstering his gun, he flipped aroundin his hand while the hyena spoke.

"There really isn't much to say to you, but I'm sentinel, whom only a few of you would know, and this is an old companion of mine, whom nearly all of you know, isn't that right Fang?" The ragged hyena said, with a dark laugh. He had a notch in his left ear, and was spotted. His clothes, all rags, a pair of shorts and simple shoes, with some old wristbands, nothing more.

The Fanger Sniper had new equipment of course, a gun holster strapped to his side, boots and a fedora to go with the oversized fang in his smile.

The weasels in the background all had empty looking eyes, and to Ash and Mina's surprise, they saw that they were old friends of theirs, the ones that had been trapped in the fire. Apparently the fox had not allowed them to be burned to death, they had become his experiments. The two mongoose didn't know which was the worst fate.

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On the other side of the complex of the building, Shadow and Jazz were watching as their former family stared at them with the same, empty glowing eyes that were the former the same as the former weasels of Organization 0.

"Now I see why Omar said you wouldn't let him live if any of us made it out alive. He couldn't prevent it though..." Jazz muttered, staring.

Shadow said nothing, he didn't even glance towardes his nephew now. His sister, and his son, they were both... monsters.

"Like what we did to them, I have to admit though I helped, Colbalt was the mind behind it all. Spliced their genes and recovered what was dormant inside them. With the blood of the Black Arms, the hidden gene of power. It had a nice side effect though, mighty cool looking now. Of course the other side effect, where they practically lost their mind and will only obey us and are bloodthirsty, I assume you won't like that. But oh well. All has its price don't it?" Scourge said, cackling every moment he spoke.

Shade was an enormous monster, as was Foxy, and they had mechanical collars and wristbands, numbered and making beeping noises, apparently control devies. They walked on all fours, and were staring at Jazz and Shadow hungrily.

Shadow nodded to the control bands, and Jazz nodded back. Perhpas if they removed those somehow...

"Oh don't even think aobut it. Take those off, and they go berserk, then no one can control them." Scourge said.

Shadow glared at the scarred hedgehog, he had never liked him, now he hated him. And beyond that, in the midst of slaves, he saw familiar faces. Sonic, the blue hedgehog, though he had somewhat respected him hadn't really liked him, but had promised Tails to find him, Amy, Articzlar and Crimzone.

All of them now experimental creatures and manipulated, horribly disfigured after the process. And under the control of the crazed fox. He, like Bujin before him, had attempted to build an army to protect him as he experimented. But unlike his mentor, had succeeded.

"I bore of this talk... Kill them." Scoureg said suddenly.

Without warning, the two monsters let out anguished howls and charged at the two. Shadow dodged nimbly out of the way, but Jazz stood his round and was knocked back as Shade attacked him. Foxbeast hissed at Shadow, who was holding ontol a lowly-lit ceiling light, staring at his sister.

Shade hovered over Jazz for a moment, and just as he went to rip the hedge-fox's throat out with his fangs, his cousin pulled out the gun he had brought, and fired it at point blank at the collar on Shade's neck, then again twice, once at each of the arm manacles. They broke apart, flying off alone with the bullet, which only grazed the skin of the genetically configured hedgehog.

The black creature reared up, clawing at teh air as the control to his master was severed. Scourge himself fell back, cluthcing at his head, yelling in pain. The chip he had Colbalt implant into his brain was malfunctioning now that Shade's connection was destroyed.

"Dmmit! What the Hell?!"Scourge screamed and stard angrily. "Kill them!"

Shade landed back down on Jazz, and glared back into his eyes, though the control between Scourge and him was severed, his eyes still glowed, and now he was more bloodthirsty than ever. His clawed hands pinned Jazz down, the hedge-fox unalbe ot move, stared up at his cousin in fear, his heart pounding. Scourge had told the truth about one thing, they were truly insane, but could they be brought back?

Shade growed and showed his fangs, shaking his head in anticipation, the many quills all over his back and head making a rattling noise.

Shadow turned as he heard this and looked toward the sound. Seeing the scene, he leapt out of the way again as Foxbeast leapt up at the light, clinging to it and ripping it out of the ceiling in her rage.

The ebon hedgehog ran to his nephew, Shade was going to kill him if he didn't intervene. At the moment, his mutated son went for Jazz's throat again, his sharp teeth sinking into the young hedge-fox's throat. He made a movement, as if to rip them out, easily killing him, but Shadow appeared. Grabbing his son's muzzle, he quickly but carefully pulled the fangs out, leaving a gaping wound, but less of what it would have been if the mutant had continued.

Shade threw his head to the side and Shadow lost his grip and was sent flying into the wall. Jazz looked up, his vision blurry from the loss of blood. Shade had left him, and was going after Shadow, while his mother came to finish him off, still under the control of Scourge. He lifted the gun again, blowing away her restraints as well. Shade may be willing to devour him, but his only chance was that she would not.

She hissed and scratched at where the collar and bands had been, then looked at him, growling.

Shadow again looked for Jazz, Foxbeast wasn't attacking him, Shade was, where...? He saw her going for the boy, and being momentarily distracted, Shade lunged at him, and like had had Jazz, pinned his father to the floor. Shadow glanced again, he was unable to save his nephew.

Scourge stared at the scene, his head reeling from the loss of control, but he regained his senses enough to start running. He would use the slaves to round the two up after they had feasted, but for now he had to get his chip replaced, and he was sure he could get Fiona to do it, after all, it wouldn't be long before all this was theirs...

None of them noticed Scourge and his other mutated slaves leaving, they were too busy focused on the present. Jazz laid on the floor, about to pass out, his neck sushing with blood that was now pooling around him. Foxbeast licked it up, before turning to him again. His breathing raspy as he struggled for air through a torn windpipe. She sat there, staring at him for a moment, her eyes flicker for a moment, then filling with confusion. The mutated hedge-fox growled again, garabbing at her head and shaking it. A feeling... and emotion... what was this?

Shade was doing likewise, holding down his father, but not murdering him, just glaring and hissing. Shadow stared at the mutated face of his son, then sighed. Shade had become such a beast, and yet he still hdan't delivered a killing blow...

Foxbeast and Shade finally stepped back from what had been their prey, growling. Then finally seeming to notice each other, they hissed and back away, again towards their own, Shadow and Jazz.

Shadow carefully stood up, and the two watched him as he began to walk slowly towards the door, glancing at Jazz. He didn't want to leave the boy, who was now unconcious, but Foxbeast had proven so far she wouldn't eat him, nor allow Shade to, and if the black hedgehog didn't find Blaze of Mina quickly, Jazz would be one of the ones not making it out of the complex.


	23. Chapter 23

Shadow ran through the complex, back to where Blaze, Mina and the others would be, or he hoped they would be. He had left so quickly before, he didn't even give them time to catch up to him. They could be anywhere. Zipping rapidly through the halls, he saw evidence of where he himself had been, fallen lights, busted walls, and broken doors. He didn't really care what he broke down, this was a monstrosity in the first place.

The black hedgehog finally made it to what looked like a hanger bay, but it was covered in blood.

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Abyss stared at the weasel and hyena, more flunkies of the crazed fox? She charged her bazooka, but then seeing how Mina, Copper and Ash were looking at the weasels under the control of the other two, she realized what had happened. These two knew that the weasels' comrades would come to rescue them, so they had made and army that could destroy their enemies in which their foe could not attack.

Dante eyed the hyena, then stepped forward. "Me and you, we have unfinished business... How fun."

Sentinel cackled, laughing and tilting his head in a crazy manner. "If I were alone, I would most certainly be terrified. But now I have the upper hand mongoose. Perhaps I shall have you as my own this time."

"You still think you can control me? What a pity, you ragged thing you." The mongoose smiled at him, finding amusement in this.

Fang did a double-take on Copper, he hadn't seen his cousin in quite some time, years in fact. Taking his gun out, he slung it back and forth on his finger, watching his relative, who was staring at him with hatred in his eyee.

"Still runnin' with the goody goodies aren't you? I would have though you would have changed by now!" Fange the sniper snickered.

"Join you? After what you have made our kind? I don't think so." Copper muttered as he watched his opponent.

"We'll see how good you are, attack them! Catch them alive, they will be fun play things!" The hyena yelled with a dark laugh to his slaves.

The weasels behind them charged without second thought, completely controlled by the hyena and their once fellow weasel. Fang hopped back and forth on his heels as Copper charged at him, and dodged nimbly out of the way.

"Oh I would have expected you to have learned more. Guess not. Hahahaha!" The fanged weasel leapt out of the way again and again, until Copper pulled out a machine gun.

"One thing hasn't changed, my taste for weaponry!"

Fang's smile faded as he began hopping about, trying to avoid the rapid gunfire now spewing from his opponents machine. Copper quickly stopped shooting, his cousin was too fast, even for this weapon, he was waiting until he rand out of bullets, so that he could be sure not to miss. But that wasn't going to happen this time, no he was going to be smart.

"You'll never hit me! Hahahha!"

Instead of aiming at the weasel himself, Copper aimed at hi effects. Off went the fedora, now riddled with holes.

"Hey! THAT'S MY FAVORITE HAT!" Screamed Fang, dropping his guard for a split second without realizing it.

Copper took advantage of it, and quickly shot his cousin in his right leg.

The purple weasel fell to the ground, unable to support himself.

"Arggggggggh! What the HELL?!"

Copper walked up to Fang the Sniper, now lying on the floor cradling his bleeding leg, and aimed at his face.

"Oh uh... I didn't mean it, I was never going to kill you, or anything you know! I mean how could a weasel kill family, it's dishonor..." Fang stuttered, staring at the muzzle of the gun.

"DON'T! Talk to me of dishonor! You were prepared to shoot me at any moment, being a thief, lier and scoundrel, and what you did to our kind! Handing them over to that insane creature you call a master because he pays you! After all that you speak of dishonor?! You may be smart, but it ends here."

"Does it?" Fang smiled evilly, snapping his fingers. A mutated weasel leapt from the group that was attacking the others and jumped onto Copper's back where he hadn't been looking, too busy focusing on his one main enemy. In the moments it took for Copper to pull the creature off of him, Fang was gone.

Across the room, Sentinel had surrounded himself with his slaves, making it difficult for Dante, Meiou, or the others to even get to him. The mutated weasels were attacking ferociously, biting and clawing without any heed to their once old friends, completely out of control.

The hyena pulled out a device, seeing that some of them were now being knocked out with the flat of Dante's large blade. Without warning, more appeared, this time weasels, mongeese, ermine, and many other species. Surrounding not only the hyena but his foes, they were also ready to attack their old kin.

Mina and Blaze could see that their forces, accept it seemed Abyss and Dante, were beginning to tire. Standing together, they used their powers to combine the magic they had been storing to create a shield aura, covering only their party, and keeping out the mutatnts.

"This isn't good... Though I can fight my true skills lie in deceit, not this. They can't be fooled, they're controlled through chips in their minds, linking them to the hyena. Cobalt was smart, he knew I'd be among the ones to come." Meiou said.

Silver was standing next to the healers, holding their hands, lending thme his psychic energy to help keep the shield up. "Isn't there some way, to stop them all at once, besides just knocking them out one by one? We don't have time, or the numbers to round them up one at a time and put them in the ship!" He asked.

"It's losing battle, to just take a few of them and come back for the rest, the fox will get more slaves, even if it's not from us. He had the portal to the human world as well. He'll take the creatures from that land if he has to, if only to get new stest subjects." Dante said, they had forgotten he'd been here before.

"How many portals does he have? Does he have the QuickTails one as well?" Meiou wondered with a grin on his face. And idea had come to the rabbit.

"If he didn't how do you think he got to the QuickTails in the first place?" The mongoose replied.

"Perhaps we do have chance then. Brove knows if we come back, that we'll be bringing back either mutated captives, or weak creatures that have been under a lot of stress. As a back-up, he's sure to have a force waiting, to handle our needs." The rabbit began.

"Oh yes, he will. We know the royal fox, he tried very hard not to be unprepared. He's had experience with Cobalt before." Blaze the cat replied from her spot in the center of the groupd with Mina and Silver, her eyes blazig with the magic of fire.

"Good then we need to get them," Meiou getsured to the mutants attempting to break into the shield, "to the portal. Once we can get them through, willingly or not, Brove will most definitely have nough of his Kitsune Warriors to handle them. Besides, they have the Organization to help as well." Meiou finished.

"Well, let's get started, we don't have all day!" Dante said, just as the shield broke apart, the healers unable to hold it up any longer.

Dante the mongoose leapt upwards, if they were to try to trick the mutants into going towards a portal, the hyena woul dhave to go. As stupid as he was, the hyena would see the trap, and order them away, using robots to take their place if he had to.

Landing on a rafter near Sentinel, obviously the hyena thought high places were safe the mongoose swung his heavy sword about in a circle in one hand. This was going to be easy. The hyena was still stupid enough. Sentinel leapt away, attempting to flee, he had surrounded himself with hi slaves, and then was foolish enough to leave their protection by going to the rafters. And now, they weren't even in the room with him, his foes on the gorund had lead them out of the room while he was distracted. Even if he called them to him now, it would be too late, they would never get to him on time.

He stopped running, and though a coward he was, he had one last trick up his sleeve. Unlike Fang, he had allowed experimentation on him to a more extreme level. He had had the dark gene of the Black Arms copied and placed in him, he was tired of being weak.

Flicking his tail back and forth, he concentrated hard on the gene, activating it, bringing it to life in his system.

Dante stopped a bar away, the hyena was up to something, he was standing there, unmoving. Sentinel suddenly opened his eyes, they were now glowing a bright yellow, the pupils unseen. His fure began to ripple, growing longer, thicker, his claws also lengthening, and his teeth becomes fangs. Growing nearly triple in size, he no longer looked like the weak, ragged hyena. He was a monster beyond the mutations that Cobalt had originally created.

"Oh good. It's about time you turned and fought, I wasw getting bored." Dante said to him, not disturbed at all by the transofrmation. He had faced far worse then this before.

The mutated version of Sentinel howled and roared at him, having loswt its mind due to the change. That was a thing he hadn't even though of trying to fix, and he was going to pay for it.

Not waiting for a signal to charg, sentinel attacked recklessly, his cowardice gone and replaced with blind rage.

The mongoose leapt easily out of the way, nicking the beast with his sword here and there as he went. It wouldn't take long for a creature this big and reckless to make a mistake, and then he would deliver a killing blow.

The hyena didn't slow down from what were now scratches fromt he sword, he continued to claw at his attacker, always missing though, something his size was not agile, he had only brute force.

Finally, an opening appeared, and the mongoose took it slicing downwards. As thick-boned as the mutant was, the blade cut through the flesh at the ankles of Sentinel, and the monster fell to the floor stories below, his right leg severed.

Hitting the bottom of the hanger with a sickening thud, the creature lay sprawled, unmoving. Dark blood pooled around him, his mouth forever open in a howl of rage.


	24. Chapter 24

Shadow couldn't tell if it was only his foes blood, obvious some of it was, with the mutated, dead hyena lying on the center of the floor, or if it belonged to his allies as well.

No one was to be seen, but sounds echoed from the hallways across the room. They must be there. The hedgehog moved quickly, Jazz didn't have a long time that he could wait with a wound so serious, and besides, he new that Foxbeast wouldn't kill him, but Shade was another story.

Entering the hallway, there was more blood, but much less then the other room, and it had a stopping trail, the healers must be doing their job, Shadow thought as he continued on.

A few more hallways and there was another room, about the same size as the hangar bay, but built with multiple portals in it. Only one of the portals was active, the rest it looked like a tank had gone through.

Abyss and Meiou led the rest of the party as their mutated companions followed them, there was no sign of Sentinel or Fang, they had seen where the weasel had gone, but the hyena… It remained a mystery, as Kight was missing as well. Little interfered with them, aside from Cobalt tripping and having to have Mina heal his leg for a moment's stop. It didn't take long before they had found the room with the trasportation portals in it, all of them located down a large room, shaped rectangular.

"Here! This one!" The red rabbit said to them, pointing to one of the glowing walls, the colors swirling in a circular motion. The tech itself appeared to be powered by a single Chaos emerald, located in the ceiling of the room, it emitted a powerful blue radiance.

As they began to fool the now somewhat mindless beings into leaping in to the portal, they heard a maniacle laugh seeming to come from everywhere. They all looked up to see who it was, except Meiou, who looked up in recognization.

"Do you all think it will be that easy? Just because you can get them away from me now makes no difference, I'll get them back later, and when I do, I'll still have you to play with in the meantime!"

The white, crazed fox, appeared on a large screen on the opposite wall, far side from them. He was cackling madly.

"Now, before I catch you really, I would love to play with you first, my new toys, I have something I would like for you to test out for me." The fox snickered, appearing to push a button on the screen.

On the other side of the room to their left, all the way near the door way about 100 or so meters away, the floor seemed to be lowering into a pit. It stopped, and lifted back up, revealing a giant two legged mechanical monstrosity, similar to the GUN Dog units, but with more rocket launchers and machine guns then they could have even imagined. And it was much larger, much.

"This… may be a problem." Copper said, his machine gun was no match, and no doubt the others wouldn't be able to stop this thing, for it was apparent it had shields.

The last of the captives had disappeared through the portal, though they knew it wasn't all of them, there were bound to be more in other areas of the base, Meiou kept it turned on. They couldn't allow something like that through the portal, Brove already had enough on his hands with the insane slaves they had sent through, but they might need it in case of a quick getaway from the machine.

The party began to back away, toward the door they had come through, but it sealed shut.

"We could really use that dog right about now, but looks to me he's had enough, and took off. Leaving us here to rot, how typical." Ash muttered, standing in front of Mina to guard her.

"Now, destroy them, my machine, or at least maim them, I still need something left to play with now don't I?!" The fox's laughter was beyond sanity now, as he writhed about in his own glee.

The machine didn't move.

The fox stopped for a moment and stared. "I said attack!" He appeared to push more buttons.

It still didn't move.

Cobalt now appeared to be having a tempertantrum.

A dark creature appeared out of the hallway, and without a word to any, leapt into the machine. Within minutes it disappeared.

The party looked on, and Meiou finally turned the portal off. They looked to the screen with Cobalt on it.

"This isn't over, someone may have stolen my prototype, but they haven't taken everything, with the ultimate lifeform no longer at the ark to guard it, I had free reign to all of the professor's research. And yes, I used it." The screen went blank, and the party looked at each other.

"We had better get going, no doubt that was all of them, though that seemed to be most of the captives from Organization 0, there were none there from Rubieteau, and Doralien." Meiou said, the rabbit leaping from where he'd been sitting on top of the portal.

"Agreed, we have to hurry at that, he's pissed off now, very. He could be doing anything to them now." Abyss told the party.

"Wait. Mina, Ash, Copper. This fight isn't yours, it's ours. Your people have been rescued, and they will need you. You have the advantage, you've seen some of the things in here, and that may help find a way to cure them. The other Organization members, Snicket and them, they've no clue what they're dealing with. You need to go back." Blaze said, Silver close to her, still waiting for danger to pop out of no where. He wasn't about to let anyone attack her.

The red rabbit turned the portal back on, and the three went through it, after which Meiou promptly turned it off. They're party had been lessened, but under necessity. The three had had to go back, someone had to help Brove and survive knowing what was in the base.

"Now, we can go. No time to waste." Silver said. The team formed a circle of protection around Blaze as they left the room, she was their last healer, if she went down, all could be lost.

Shadow the hedgehog looked about, this room, with the portals, it had not been easy to force the door to it open, and through the one portal still looked operable, it was off. Where were they?! He had to find them, and quickly, Jazz had no time.

Running through the room and out the door on the other side, he could tell that the others had been through here. At least he was on the right track. He would catch up to them, he was faster, and he wasn't stopping, they had been.

The team finally made it to a newer area, but this was the worst of the rooms they had encountered so far. It appeared to be an experimentation room. Tubes were mounted on the walls, tables with tools around them, cages, and lifts to transport the cages…

Robots were forcing new soon-to-be experiments from the cages towards the tubes and tables, in preperation for their master to 'play' with them. Rouge the bat was one of them. Already she was halfway into the tube, which had been laid on its side for easier access. The robots were fastening her arms and legs down with straps, though having trouble from her kicking and fighting. Her screaming had no effect on machines however.

Abyss quickly leapt forward ahead of the group and attacked the machines, her long legs and heavy steel-toed boots having a great effect in smashing them to shreds. Silver and Meiou followed in her lead, the hedgehog using his psychic powers to crush the robots, and Meiou pulling out his sword, using that to dismember his foes.

Once all the bots in the room were destroyed, for they were simple bots with only one program, to encase prisoners, not to destroy them, the team turned to freeing the captives. They were all relatively new, none had had the time to be experimented on, though some were in the tubes already. Rouge, now very angry at being captured, was about to have a fit when she felt something.

"You did mention you had a portal going back to somewhere didn't you? Well you had better show it to me, looks like I'm about to have my baby early again!" The bat started yelling at the party.

Meiou knew better then to argue with a pregnant woman, even more so Rouge. He nodded to Abyss.

The black rabbit and white bat took off down the way they had came, Abyss having to help her from the pain.

"How's Darkerz? Any word? Was he captured? What about all my other babies, he was supposed to watch them! And Demon?!" The bat demanded as they went.

"They're fine, all of them. Darkerz kept them safe, and got them to the safehold." The rabbit explained to her.

"Good. I don't blame him for losing track of me, he can barely keep track of Demon! Besides for the one only time, I should have listened to him, usually he's wrong. But that's men for you."

Abyss nodded, trying to listen to the rantings of a bat in labor with patience.

They turned down the last hallway, a black blur almost running into them. It stopped for a moment in front of them.

"Rouge! Are you alright?" Shadow asked, for he was the blur, though he seemed distracted and disappointed that Blaze wasn't with them.

"Fine, now move out of my way!" The bat demanded.

"Don't ask." Abyss muttered, as they rushed onward.

Shadow continued on his way, if those two were here, he had to be close, the rest of the party couldn't be too far ahead. Just a little longer, Jazz, just hold to life a little while longer. He hadn't been able to help Maria all those years ago, when he had first been brought into the world by the professor, but he would Jazz.


	25. Chapter 25

Now that their party numbered a low three, a drastic reduction to their starting number of ten, Meiou was more cautious in leading them through the dark corridors, which suddenly became even darker, the power flickering on and off, and sparks beginning to fizz from random walls all around them. On the speakers, they heard the maniac fox screaming in terror, then rage, and finally silence. None of them had a clue what was happening, but something had gone drastically wrong, even more then them entering the base.

"That could be Shadow, Jazz, or even Omar's doing, but let's not get our hopes up, we have to keep going." The red bunny said to the other two.

Silver and Blaze were having no trouble keeping up, but they were both growing more alert then they had been. Many robots had crossed their paths, fighter bots, and workers, all they had quickly destroyed with the rabbit's sword or the hedgehog's telekenetic powers. The cat healed them of the minor injuries they sustained, scratches, bruises, but they had to always guard her, she could not be hit.

As the three continued on, more and more horrendous things began to appear, as they headed downward into the base. Mutated creatures that apparently had completely lost their minds, far beyond what they had previously seen, they had to destroy, or be killed themselves. These creatures, many of them were fused with others, body parts all tangled and mutilated.

Finally after some time, a blur appeared in front of them, they saw a quick glance of it, it could be Shadow, or Shade, or even Darkerz, some black hedgehog. It didn't stop to speak to them, instead it weaved between Silver and Meiou, grabbing the healer cat by the wrist and shooting off down the hallway it came.

"BLAZE!" Silver yelled and ran after her. The white hedgehog had nearly lost her once, he wasn't about to lose her again.

Meiou followed the psychic, knowing full well that if they lost the purple cat the two most definitely wouldn't make it out alive. There were too many dangers, and the worst was yet to come.

Abyss sighed, now that Rouge was safely through the portal and being cared for, she had grabbed Copper for a team mate, and they were on their way again. The black rabbit knew it was dangerous to run about the base without a healer, but there weren't any to spare now that the Organization slaves were being taken care of, and Copper had demanded to come back, he had to find Fang, and finish him.

The rabbit and weasel were about 4 feet out of the portal when they saw someone step from the darkness. At first, they thought it was Meiou, but after a better look, they saw that was not the case.

The creature that stood before them was indeed a rabbit, though taller then their friend, and a bright pink color, with darker pink markings and shocking purple hair that hung to his shoulders. He wore a long jacket that split in the back and was buttoned only once at his neck, and white sandals and shorts.

"Hello there…. Who might you be…?" He gave them a disarming smile of sureness, as if there was nothing wrong at all.

"What are you talking about?! Who the hell are you? Are you some experiment that escaped? If so…" Abyss started. Copper hung behind her, watching with an alarmed caution.

"An experiment, oh god woman, no of course not! But so kind of you to ask, dear. If you like, I know this place like my own two ears, I would love to show a lovely creature like yourself around, the weasel slave could come as well, just keep him quiet, please."

Copper glared and sniffed at the term 'weasel slave', and Abyss stared in disbelief. Who was this guy?!

"Again, I repeat the question, Pinky, who the hell are you?!" She said, now starting to suspect him as a foe.

"Of course I am deeply sorry, where are my manners?" The pink rabbit gave her a bow. "I'm Moku, I am Cobalt's, you could call it, mentor perhaps? I found him, when he was being schooled by another, fool. I taught him there were better ways, more ways to delve into science, especially the art of disguise. Tis why I have free reign of this place. I helped him overthrow that ridiculous hedgehog, and establish this base." The pink rabbit finished, with a dark smirk on his face.

Copper was about to rush at Moku, ready to rip him to shreds, he was responsible for all this?! Abyss lifted an arm in front of him as he moved forward, and then hit him squarely between the ears.

"Stop jumping to conclusions, Grub! Can't you see that this gentleman is being gracious enough to show us his home? Why, those Quicktails were not nearly as so, removing us from their land and all that." Abyss said to him, showing him a wink that the foe didn't catch.

The weasel didn't even risk nodding, though he understood what his friend was planning. "Forgive me, milady…" He bowed his head low, and backed farther behind her.

"Ah so you are interested! How nice, the only other two that I had fun showing around were Scourge and Fiona, and then Cobalt ruined my fun by deciding to involve them in his experiments. And he thinks he can train the fox in ways similar to how I trained him. One thing he did remember is, not to treat the apprentice to all the tricks in the master's book. How silly of me, I rant, milady! Come, come!" The pink rabbit beckoned to her, ignoring Copper.

Abyss followed him as he showed her all the different tunnels and such through a swift transport somewhat like a version of the sled they had been using for the supplies on getting to the base, but smaller, and more efficient. It hovered, and flew, and stopped on a dime, it must have been something that the fox had made personally for the pink rabbit.

Cobalt sat behind the two rabbits, and kept quiet, all the while watching and observing. This was a grand opportunity they had been presented with. If the two could convince this creature and the insane fox that they were separate from the others and would like to join them, they would have an astounding advantage.

Moku kept the sled cruising through mostly open areas, high places, showing off the bases intricate mechanical systems, multiple lift transports, and slaves and robots working to repair and put things together. All the while making jaunty movements, and appearing to be attracted to Abyss.

It was all the black rabbit could not stomping the witty pervert to the floor of the sled. She knew that she would have to deal with it though, but she wasn't sure if she could keep her cool if he went further.

Blaze was about to start throwing fire balls at her kidnapper, but stopped. If it were Shadow, he had a good reason for this, if it were Darkerz the same applied, though she doubted if it were him. If it were Shade, she didn't want to see the look on his fathers face if he found out the cat had burned him to death even in self defense.

She heard Silver shout her name, and start after her with Meiou, but also knew there was no way the two would be able to catch them, regardless of which of the three it was.

It didn't take long before they had sped through so many halls, doorways and rooms that she lost track of where they were. Within ten minutes though, they had arrived at apparently the room that her companion wanted her. He set her down, and she saw it was indeed Shadow.

Looking around the room, she saw Jazz in one corner of the room, it looked like he been dragged around brutally by the neck of his jacket, before being set down in the spot where he lay with his face to the floor.

There was no sign of anyone else, all was quiet. Blaze glanced at the hedgehog, questioningly, before setting to work, such a wound was not exactly easy to heal.

The black hedgehog watched with worry, and then turned as a series of loud crashes came from the room next over. The sound of snarling and fighting, screaming and barking came from it, along with flashes of light and sparks. Suddenly thrown out of the room, two monstrous beings came running towards them.

Following them in a slow, but steady pace, was Cobalt. He had blood dripping from wounds on him, but none too serious, and was armed to the teeth with armor not only on himself, but from the machine he was sitting in. It reminded the hedgehog of Tails' Tornado, but also of the GUN Dogs, except this one was enormous, and walking on multi-jointed legs, it clanked about heavily, forcing the hallway larger as it ripped into the walls with it four arms that were equipped with many sets of claws. The claws were not it's only weapon though, as it had multiple machine guns, and what appeared to be rocket launchers coming from it's waist area.

Shadow turned to Blaze, she was healing the hedge-fox as quickly as she could, and had gotten him out of the danger zone it seemed, moving him was risky, but they didn't have a choice. The hedgehog picked Jazz up, then took Blazes hand and placed it on his arm, she immediately understood and held on tight.

They took off running again, as the crazed fox began firing rounds off at them, and Shadow realized that the two mutants, Shade and Foxbeast, were also following them, running hurriedly on the walls and grabbing at any hand hold they could find to speed them up on all fours.

Finally making it back into a larger area, the hangar place where Sentinel the hyena mutant still lay dead and rotting on the floor, Shadow turned round and round trying to find an exit. The filthy fox had sealed them off, and not with just walls, but lasers and rocks, things that would take not too long for one person to get through, but carrying his two passengers…

The mutants caught up with them, and stood next to them, their tails wagging and transformed heads looking around in agitation. But they didn't attack. For a moment, they both looked into Shadow's eyes. The intelligent look had returned, they had their minds back, if not their natural bodies.

"Now what?!" Blaze asked the hedgehog with a sense of controlled urgency, she was not one to fall to pieces.

Out of the corner of the room, they saw Meiou and Silver approaching cautiously, watching Shade and Foxbeast.

Blaze let go of Shadow and stood with Silver, quickly explaining, the banging and crashing noises were getting louder. Cobalt's powerful machine may have to tear his way through metal the entire way to get to them, but he was getting closer, and time was running out.

Meiou filled Shadow in on the situation with the party, and why it had been reduced so low, all the while keeping a wary eye on the mutants.

Blaze continued her healing with Jazz as Silver, who was not really disturbed by the mutants at all, went around with the two creatures and began looking for any sort of exit. It was worse then they had originally thought, even with his telekenetic powers, the fox had been smart, and had blocked off all the doorways with over ten feet of steel and titanium. He wasn't about to let them go.

A crash suddenly sounded, and the white hedgehog and mutants quickly regrouped with the rest, Cobalt had finally made his way into the room. Here, he had plenty of room to maneuver his machine, and to attack.

The crazed fox laughed at them, as he pushed buttons and began to move his machine about in preperation.

"Time to play with him new toys, how fun!"

"COBALT!!"

The fox halted, and stared at the speakers in his machine, growling.

"I dare say! Why have you locked all the doors in the base?! I have a lovely black thorn flower of a rabbit here, I was showing her around, and suddenly we're locked in the containment room! We were only passing through it, it's quite rude to expect her or even or weasel slave for that matter to look at all these dirty, scum-ridden creatures in cages howling at us for so long!" The voice started up, with a lofty and angry air about it.

Shadow glanced at Meiou, black rabbit and weasel, it was most likely Abyss and Cobalt, but who were they with that could speak to the fox like that? And what were they up to?

"I'm dealing with… Some broken toys at the moment. I had to lock the doors to keep them from ruining the rest. It'll be over shortly!" The fox pouted into the communicator.

"Fix the doors now." The voice had suddenly become a low hiss, the anger seeming to quiver in the tone, about to explode.

"Five minutes, old one." The fox replied.

"How dare you, fox. If it weren't for me you'd still be under that ridiculous red rabbit fool! I think it's time I take my share of the work you have created. All of it!" The voice clicked off the link abruptly, the silence more disturbing to the fox then when the voice had been present.

"He wouldn't dare… These slave toys are mine!" The fox's machine began to stomp around in a tempertantrum, beginning to shoot off rockets and bullets randomly in all directions.

The party leapt behind some of the titanium cargo boxes, the weapons bouncing off and flying elsewhere.

Shadow turned to the rest, glancing at Jazz, who was being held by Silver and being watched closely by Foxbeast. He was still out cold, they would have to drag him out of the base, if they could get out at all. The black hedgehog looked back out at Cobalt, who was still blasting everything he saw insanely.

"Where are you toys?! Come out and play with Cobalt!" He screamed as the lights in the base began to flicker more, and shots of electricity began to fly about from the machines in the room.

"How to get out of this one… Our weapons won't be enough to take him out, and we'd be hit before we could reach him even if we could!" Meiou said.

"And he has a block on it, my telekenesis won't work on something like that." Silver followed.

Jazz began to stir, blinking and then giving a low moan. He winced and went to touch his neck, where the gash was healing, and the cat stopped him.

"Let it heal, kid!" She said.

Foxbeast gave a growling purr, it sounded more like a threat then a gesture of concern. Jazz looked up at her, then towards Shade. The mutated hedgehog looked away, acting as if Jazz was still unconcious.

Blaze let go of the young hedge-fox, who didn't seem to mind that his mother had become an strange mutated monster. He let her paw at his fur and lick his face, though he did make an irritated face at it.

"I'm not a kid, mom! Dammit, I'm fine!" He didn't stop her though, seeming to be secretly relieved she had her right mind back.

Shadow watched them for a moment, then again looked. The fox was NOT calming down at all. The only one of their party missing was Omar, and who knows where he had gone.


	26. Chapter 26

"I know one thing, cowering behind crates isn't going to get us anywhere!" Jazz said to Shadow, after his mother was finally done with him.

Shadow nodded, in complete agreement. Staying here like sitting ducks was not helping, but if they moved they would be shot instantly, or blown to pieces.

A noise to the north of the hangar, in the ceiling just above Cobalt's machine, and they looked up. A grate was popping out, it fell and clattered. The fox turned his guns upward, but not fast enough. A green hedgehog popped out and became a blur as he sped around the room.

"It's Omar, but this speed is beyond what he had before. He's faster, probably by Cobalt's own doing." Meiou said as they watched.

The blur attracted all of the crazed fox's attention, the wild bullets and missiles now aimed at one target, one they could not hit. The hedgehog sped about the room, keeping away from where the rest were hiding, and finally jumping onto the creature's giant weapon itself.

The fox switched tactics, and began trying to grab at the green hedgehog with his four clawed arms, intending to obviously rip him to shreds.

"Slow down, my toy! I SAID SLOW DOWN!" Cobalt grabbed crazily, but was unable to catch him. Finally, he put the machine down to set on all six limbs, making it shake like a wet dog in an attempt to dislodge the pest.

Bucking and heaving about, the machine began to climb on the walls like a giant insect all the while with Omar holding on.

"He's looking for a port to dismantle it's wiring." Jazz said, his hawk eyes coming in handy to see so far up the ceiling.

It was apparent that Omar was taking a beating being banged against the hard hull of the machine, but he continued to climb about on it, whether it was upside-down or side-ways. Finally, he popped a hatch on one of the upper left shoulders open, and yanked out a mess of wires. The arm's whose wire's he'd ripped out suddenly ceased to working, and there was a jolt as the machine seemed it was going to fall as it lost balance momentarily.

The fox leveled the machine out, though the arm continued to stay broken, and he fought harder to throw the speedy hedgehog off.

Omar crawled over the arm that he'd disabled, to the underbelly of the craft, and the fox smiled. Foolish, he would smash his foe against the wall!

Cobalt bashed himself against the wall, but the hedgehog had moved to the back again, and it damaged the machine's computer that controlled the ammunition related weapons, the rocket launchers and machine guns. Now the fox had to rely completely on crushing his opponent, and the others were more free to move about to find an exit, though they still had to be wary in case Cobalt came after them.

The party moved about the blocked exits, trying to find one that was less blocked then they had originally foresaw. It was bad enough that they were trapped inside with Cobalt, but now the crazed fox they were trapped with had had his base taken away.

There was a blast at one of the openings, and the rubble rushed forward, rocks and steel cleared within moments. A laser flew past them, bright blue. Through the mess, came Abyss and Copper. The voice from the speaker was no where to be found, they were alone. Abyss was hefting a large weapon attached to her as a backpack, with a huge laser gun coming out of the back of it to fire over her head. The weasel was carrying an even larger machine gun, but like the rabbit's weapon, it also fired lasers.

"Come on, it's time to get our ass' out of here!" Abyss yelled at them.

They didn't need to be told twice, and took off down the hallway. Except Jazz, and Foxbeast even did a double take, though her and Shade were about to collapse from exhaustion. Though they were mutants and had been filled with enormous amounts of power, they had taken such a beating, partially from themselves, that they had no energy left to fight. The green hedge-fox stopped at the entrance, and looked from the hallway, back to Omar.

"I can't…" Jazz ran back into the room, towards Cobalt and his father. He wasn't about to lose him again. He had lost a lot of blood and energy in being attacked by Shade before, but he wasn't finished fighting.

Shadow turned and saw his nephew heading back into the room. The ebon hedgehog shook his head in irritation and followed him, Meiou would have to lead the rest out.

Jazz attached himself to the machine as his father was, giving him a smirk. Omar glared at him for following him in such a dangerous situation, then smiled back before going back to work on slowly dismantling the machine. The arms of the machine's right side had been completely disabled, forcing Cobalt to stay on the floor to balance the machine upright again.

Shadow jumped onto the machine as well, and Cobalt grinned in his insanity, three targets were easier then one alone. But he still was having trouble getting at them, but no worries he thought, one of them would eventually make a slip, long before his machine stopped running, for they were beginning to tire.

The hedge-fox tore open a panel on the giant weapon's back, revealing it's power source, a Chaos Emerald. Shadow moved him out of the way, yanking Jazz and Omar and throwing them off the machine. Stupidely, Cobalt did as the hedgehog had wanted him to do, and ran away from the others, trying to cut his opponent off from aid. Shadow placed a hand on the Chaos Emerald, and power surged from him, blasting the machine to pieces, and Cobalt across the room, fire burning in his fur and on his two tails.

"CHAOS BLAST!" Shadow yelled as the power exploded, red light filling the room.

Omar grabbed Jazz and sped to the hallway, behind the rocks and rubble. The wave of power flew past, the steel shielding them from it.

The light died down, and Shadow stood with the Chaos Emerald now in his hand. Cobalt was writhing on the floor across the room, still trying to put out the fire as it scalded him.

Shadow walked over to Omar and Jazz, Cobalt was finished. Now the only foe left was the strange voice that had came from the machine's speakers before it was destroyed.

Abyss, Meiou and Copper led the rest to a somewhat safer place in the base, and the two explained what had happened. Apparently while with Moku, they had won the vile pink rabbit's affection, or at least Abyss had. When Moku and Cobalt had been busy arguing, the two had plotted their escape from him, while grabbing some weapons.

The perverted rabbit had overridden Cobalt's codes and fixed the doors, but as soon as they were open, Copper and Abyss had disappeared. They had waited long enough, they were tired of not being able to do anything to save their friends. They had found the rest of the tortured ones, and sent them throught the portal, all the rest of the captives were now safe, now they had to escape after finding the others. It hadn't taken them long to find the room with the fox, he had been yelling and making so much noise it was quite easy.

As Shadow, Jazz, and Omar ran to catch up with the rest of the team, they heard screams of pain coming from behind them, the crazed fox no doubt. They continued on without a thought, coming to yet another open room in which Silver had fallen behind to wait for them, he more then trusted the others and mutants to protect Blaze.

The two hedgehogs and hedge-fox were getting exhausted, Silver knew they would need some protection now. Again the banging began, and they looked back. Cobalt couldn't have survived, and even if he had, how had he recooperated so quickly?!

The wall in which the doorway had been where they had come from exploded, and it was Cobalt again. The fox had the same machine he had had before, except now it was more heavily armored, and had extra little arms attached to the four arms already on it.

"Did you truly think that was my last one?!" The fox boasted in a singsong voice. He had healed himself and restored his burnt fur, his eyes were glowing red, no doubt he had experimented on himself.

The hedgehog's and hedge-fox glanced at him and took off running in the other direction, they had no energy left to battle this creature.

Cobalt lumbered after them, attempting once again to dig through steel to get to them as they ran through the tunnels.

They finally caught up with the rest of the team, only to find them halted again. They had finally made it out of the base, and were now standing in the grounds outside. It was Moku this time, his hands on his hips as his coat blew in the wind. He swaggered wildly around, laughing crazily.

"I'm beyond that of which Cobalt's insanity rates! Normally I would have crushed creatures like you, save for that lovely black rabbit of course, but my foxling did need to be taught a lesson, isn't that right Fiona?" The pink rabbit turned to his left, and from behind some of the grounded ships came another fox and hedgehog. Fiona and Scourge.

"Yes my master, Cobalt was getting out of hand…. Hahahhaha!" The red-pink fox laughed low and darkly, as Scourge followed her example behind her.

The green scarred hedgehog stepped forward, carrying a set of leashes, at which Foxbeast and Shade immediately hid behind the rest of the party, cowering.

"Oh come now, I thought we were having so much fun earlier!" He errupted in fits of crazed laughing as his other two allies came forward as well.

"You'll hear from us again, Cobalt as well now doubt, but perhaps we can allow you to leave. For now. I mean after all, I wouldn't want to cause that beautiful black-thorned rose of yours any anguish in seeing what we would do to you." Moku said, much to Fiona and Scourge's surprise. The two began to argue, but were silenced by a look from the rabbit.

The perverted rabbit pressed a switch, allowing the gates open behind him. He stepped out of the way, and nodded towards it. His lackeys turned and grumpily sped off around the base and into it, no doubt to inform the white fox of this.

As the party began to leave, Moku closed the gates behind them, all the locks and wire sealing back into place.

"The white fox will be better to know his superiors the next time around, and you will know our wrath as well, for I will not hold back, even for the means of punishment to the fox, next time." The rabbit cackled.

They ignored him, and fled to the hills.

They all reached the portal they had come from without incident, they traveled quickly, they didn't want the insane pink rabbit to change his mind on them. Once through it, they came to a city of cheer, sending Mina and Ash back, the two had figured out how to return the altered ones to their original state. Everyone that had been captured was returned to normal.

Shadow was pleased at this, if they were able to be turned back, it wouldn't be long before Foxbeast and Shade were back to their old selves. He wasn't sure about Omar though, the green hedgehog had gone through so much in the past few days, he doubted that his friend could even face his family again.

While the rest of the team were awaiting patiently for the two to be returned to normal, Omar came to Shadow.

"Good that they'll be back to normal." The ebon hedgehog said to him.

Omar nodded, but didn't look at him, nor did he say anything at first.

"She'll forgive you, she always has." Shadow told him. He still wasn't looking at him.

"I'm leaving." Omar said.

Shadow looked at him, the green hedgehog had scars all over him now, and was still trying to heal from being beaten so badly.

"I… I might come back… But I'm done… I can't handle it. I've not only hurt her, but lost all my memories of us and the past. I don't even remember who she is now… I know we had something together, but it's lost now…"

"You don't remember anything? Not even flashes?" Shadow asked.

"Nothing… I have no feelings for her now either, other then caring like anyone else." He said.

"Then how did you know…?"

"The way she looked at me before they took her to return her to normal. She looked at no one else, just me… And those two that kept following me around, they look like her, but me… I have figured out who they are… But I still can't stay."

There was a pause, as Shadow took this in. Finally he broke the silence again.

"When will you be leaving?" He asked the green hedgehog.

"In a few minutes. I didn't want to take the kids from her, but they won't leave me alone. They keep following me around, they know what I'm going to do. They're going to try to come with me…" He replied.

"Let them. Foxbeast will understand. I'll explain it to her. It's for the best." Shadow told him.

" I know I should face her… But I can't. After all this. Will she understand that I have lost all feeling towards her, with my memory wiped?" He wondered.

"She will."

"If… When… I do come back… I hope she still understands that…" Omar turned to walk away.

"Don't worry… I'll take care of her…" Shadow said.

Omar's ears drooped, but he continued walking away.

"I hope she finds someone else for her… Someone who she can really trust."

The black hedgehog turned to reassure him that he had done all he could for her, and that he was trustworthy, but his friend was already gone. Shadow shook his head. This was going to be a difficult thing to explain to his sister, why her kids and her now ex had left her for the unknown.


	27. Chapter 27

**One Year after the attack.**

Shadow watched as everyone made preparations to leave the Quicktails' city. It had been nearly a year since they had first arrived there, seeking protection and aid in rescuing their family stolen from Cobalt, the insane scientist fox.

So much had changed in the year. They had lost some, and gained new allies. Brove told them as they went to leave that they would be welcome to return at any time, in time of need or just a visit. The two-tailed fox who was king now trusted them, after risking so much for their kind, and his own.

Articzlar, Crimzone, and Shade had returned to their status as leaders of the Rubetieau and Doralien, even after their experience of being mutalated and experimented on. They were their old selves again, as were all the rest who had been captured. Even Foxbeast and Shade were starting to get back to their old selves, though the hedge-fox seemed to have more sadness in her these days.

Demon, the hedge-bat came up to him, now wearing a brown suit for a uniform and shoes that matched. In the year, he had had a sudden age boost, it was a delayed reaction to his genes, as his daughter Maria was having at the moment. Demon had already reached the age of 14, and Maria was now 12.

"Shadow, our bases and homes have been completely destroyed, caved in from when the fox had originally attacked. It's unlivable." The young hedge-bat replied.

Shadow nodded at him, his own brown uniform, with an added cloak swirling in the wind.

"I'll inform the two of that. There may be a place to stay besides there. We can't rely on the hospitality of the Quicktails or even the Organization 0 for so long. It isn't right. And we do need a place that is safe, with Moku and his two crazed fox's out there still." The ebon hedgehog said as he left.

One his way to see Articzlar and Crimzone, Shadow picked up Foxbeast on the way. The purple hedge-fox had been keeping busy during the year, taking care of Maria and helping Atlantis and Shade with Oracle. For such a convincing argument, he would need her.

The blue penguin and red cat were already waiting for the, Demon and Darkerz next to them. The hedge-bat had apparently decided to inform them of the situation himself. They did not look happy, and were already arguing.

"Shut the hell up you four!" Shadow told them, for Demon had the knack of getting into the arguments he wasn't supposed to be in.

"There is no where for us to go! We can't return to our homes, the ones we worked so hard to build… Where else can we go?!" Articzlar was saying.

"There must be a place, we cannot stay here! And we most certainly can't be nomads wandering aimlessly until we find somewhere to stay!" Crimzone the cat countered.

"There is a place, we can live and wait until we find somewhere." Shadow said, wondering if that would get their attention.

They immediately turned to him, surprised he'd come up with a solution so quickly.

"What?!" They all said.

The hedge-fox next to the ebon hedgehog nodded, catching on quickly.

"The ARK."

"The ARK? Are you mad? That's in the human dimension! They'll find us within minutes of us arriving, and you know what they'll do to us all!" Shade said, his fearful side coming out. As tough as the Shadow look-a-like was, save for the black circle emblazoned on his forehead stripe, his worst fear was human experimentation. He had heard it was the worst of all. Rumors started easy among them, and after their abduction of Shadow and Maria… He wasn't about to trust them.

"The humans are intelligent, but not powerful enough to get to the ARK. Not after what I've done to it. We can avoid them long enough to get to the ARK. Trust me, they're not omni-gods, and they most certainly can't read minds. They won't know we're coming." Shadow said.

"We'll have to consult about this, with more then just us. Gather some of the others." Crimzone told Shade, who reluctantly turned to do so, before shaking his head at Shadow.

Within the hour the decision had been made, they were to go to the ARK. It surprised Shadow that they would trust him enough to believe him that the humans wouldn't be smart enough to try anything. As they made even more preparations to make an even further journey, one that would require to go to the human world and manuever through it to reach a workable portal that lead to the ARK itself. The ebon hedgehog had known better then to leave more then one working portal turned on, and this one was hidden deep within a cave system. The humans wouldn't find it if they searched for generations.

Organization 0 had left many months ago, they unlike the Rubeteiau and Doralien, had had no young ones, all them had remained behind, so they recooperation was faster, and they didn't dawdle about.

Silver and Blaze had decided to return with Shadow and the rest, it was high time for them to leave as well, and seek new opportunities. Silver had since been making frequent visits to the Knuckles tribe, to report on Spike's very busy babysitting status. The gaurdian of the Master Emerald himself, Knuckles, had made a visit to help Sonic and Tails before the three left for the human world again. They were needed elsewhere, no doubt Dr. Eggman was causing trouble again.


	28. Chapter 28

Upon reaching the human world, in a randomized exit portal, Crimzone and Articzlar took no time in sending out runners to find out where on earth they exactly were. Darkerz and Demon were chosen instantly. The father and son team were well trained for such things, and knew each other well in case of battle.

While waiting, Meiou, Foxbeast, Shadow, Shade, and Abyss gathered about to discuss how to remain hidden, no matter where they were. Abyss had been promoted into the Rubeteiau, on a commanding level the same as Darkerz. Though she hadn't been bred in their race, she was trustworthy. Shadow was not promoted by speech, but by knowance of all. Everyone saw and understood his power, and now as strange as it seemed for him, wisdom. Shade had remained at his stature, just under Abyss, and had made up with Meiou it seemed. The red rabbit had needed no promotion, like Shadow, he was still head of the mech guild, and was often aided by Tails, until the fox left that is. Foxbeast had also remained the same, though she was being watched more, by her brother expecially.

They all stayed close to keep warm, it was in the middle of winter in this dimension, unlike the other that was summer.

Darkerz and Demon looked about, the hedgehog racing about the ground, and the hedge-bat flying high in the sky swiftly. It appeared that they were deep in the forest, but there was what appeared to be an old human's hunting cabin nearby. With all the snow about, it was definitely not in season for hunting, but the two didn't know that, so they were still cautious.

Upon arriving, they saw it was deserted, and after a quick scout of the area, they forced the front door of the small building open, revealing a one room house, aside from the tiny bathroom and rather large basement.

Darkerz went downstairs into the basement, after he had found a flashlight. He didn't have night eyes, like his son. Finding the generator, he cranked it on, having seen Tails do so to one similar before. The lights flashed on.

Meanwhile, Demon looked about curiously, opening and closing chests, and making a mess about the place. After all, humans didn't deserve respect, now did they? He pulled open drawers and cabinets, leaving the supplies, they QuickTails had given them plenty. Glancing to a wall, he saw a map. It marked their location. He pulled it down off the wall and stuffed it in a backpack pocket. He didn't understand the Earth's geography, this was his first time in such a dimension, but certainly one of the others back at camp would.

The hedge-bat's father came back from the basement with a angry look on his face.

"I found a map, Dad. Find any.." Demon started.

"No. Let's get out of this godforsaken hellhole." Darkerz didn't say anything more as they left. He wasn't about to tell his son about all the animal skins and furs he had found down there, earth AND mobiun.

They arrived back at the camp, where they showed Shadow the map. The hedgehog knew exactly where they were. As they made preperations to leave, Darkerz pulled his look-a-like aside, and told him what he had seen.

Shadow appeared alarmed, and immediately changed their plans, and brought Meiou over.

"Is it possible, that during the traveling of dimensions, that a time warp could have happened?" He asked the red rabbit.

The reabbit was busy shining up his swords, but nodded in response. "It's possible. Not likely but quite possible."

After discussing it, they all decided risks were not to be taken, and mapped out a more roundabout way to the portal. It would take them long, they had been lucky to been teleported already near to it. It was still slow going, from the cold, but they eventually made it without further events.

They had finally reached the portal in the cave system, which had been even harder to navigate, with the formation of stalactites and stalagmites. But as Shadow had said, the humans had not found it, nor would they ever.

It was agreed that a few of the strongest go first, to help keep in order all the rest that followed. Shadow, Foxbeast and Kight were chosen. Though the blue husky had gotten increasingly more lazy with no one to fight with, he was still powerful.

After quite a few flashes of light, and a feeling of disembodiment, they appeared in the ark. Shadow sighed at its familiarity, it had been a long time since he had been home. Foxbeast sniffed, then looked at him with an alert look.

"Someone's here. Right now." She said quietly to him.

Kight sniffed as well, his nose twitching. A look of primal pleasure came to his face. "CAT!"

The blue husky dog took off running after the scent, barking wildly. The ebon hedgehog and purple hedge-fox looked at each other, in confusion, then alarm as they raced after him. They had never thought of him having a problem with cats, they hadn't never noticed it, but Blaze had always kept a good distance away from him.

Too late, they heard a loud "REWWWWWWWWWOOOOOOOOOOAAAAAARRRR!" They came around the corner to see the husky barking madly at the ceiling of the hanger they were now all in. Team Chaotix and Knuckles the echidna were nearby, trying to calm him down. Looking up, there was a blue catlike creature hanging from a beam, metal claws that extended from his hands slashing defensively, trying to keep the dog away.

"GET AWAY FROM ME YA DAMN MUTT! IT'S ONLY BEEN 2 YEARS!!" The cat screamed at the dog.

After a few minutes, Kight calmed down, allowing the cat down, who they now saw was dressed in black pants, arm guards, and a red scarf. He pulled his metal hand claws off and stuffed them in a small bag he carried around his waist.

"Ya freakin' sex hound, I'm not gay, as good friends as we are, I'M NOT FREAGIN' GAY! And I'm a cat, what are ya thinking!?" The blue cat asked, his black eartips twitching.

"I wasn't trying to attract you, I just wanted to tackle and lick, haven't seen you in while hehehehe. Your scent excited me." Kight said, before plopping lazily on the floor to take a nap.

Knuckles and Team Chaotix looked irritated, more the the red echidna.

"Hey Shadow, and Foxy. Nice to see you lived. Took you while to get back didn't it? This is Kenji. He was helping us out, turns out he knew how to bypass all the defense systems. Tails was thinking about having the freedom fighters have this base as headquarters. But you seem to need it more hunh?" The guardian of the Master Emerald said.

"There's enough room for all of us, the ARK is enormous. From the looks of the humans nowadays, even I won't say no to you coming up here." The ebon hedgehog said darkly.

Vector the crocodile came up, trailed by Espio and Charmy.

"BUZZBUZZBUZZ! We came to prove to Kenji that Espio is a better ninja then him, though I don't' really think so!" The bee said in a sing song voice.

Espio gave Charmy a quick, but deadly glance, which the bee ignored, and continued to sing. The chameleon said nothing.

The blue cat that they called Kenji smirked and chuckled at this, finding it funny. He turned to the two newcomers.

"Hey ya'll. So this is your ARK? Sweet place you got here." He said to Shadow.

"Mmm, you certainly are pretty aren't you? Nice to meet you." He said to Foxbeast.

The purple hedge-fox blushed, and her brother glared daggers at the cat.

"We must aid the others, sister. We have much to do." Shadow said, pointedly saying 'sister' to disturb the cat, who like Charmy, ignored the remark.


	29. Chapter 29

It didn't take long to get everyone up to the ark, the Rubiens and the Doraliens, and within the day, many other mobiuns and freedom fighters arrived as well. Including some unexpected, and slightly unwelcome visitors.

"Oh come on! I'm just taking a nap up here, not like I'm going to catch ya for Cobalt or nothin'!" Scourge said as he relaxed on a bed in one of the arks many housing areas. Fiona lay beside him, under the covers. The two had obviously been there a while, because her clothes were on the floor.

Shadow, Shade, and Darkerz were all standing in the doorway, ready to attack him. After all, it hadn't been but a year since he had been threatening and trying to kill them with each other's mind controlled selves.

"Get out of here, Scourge, this place is not for those who will cause trouble!" Shade yelled at him. The three black hedgehogs fur were all standing on end, they knew what he was capable of.

"With those crazy human hunters runnin' all over the place looking for mobiuns this past year, it's not easy finding a decent place that's private you know, since Cobalt kicked us out anyway." The green hedgehog said, it was only then that the three realized how different he looked since the last time they had seen him. The signs of experimentation still lingered, though not as dominant, and he had tribal tattoos on his quills.

"Where did you go to get those markings….?" Shadow asked him.

Scourge stood up, leaving Fiona in the bed, the fox looking irritated with him.

"These? Oh, just found some rabbit tribe. Stayed with them for a while. Left when they weren't of any use anymore." The green hedgehog laughed darkly.

Shadow stared at him, realization coming to him.

"If you hurt Luna and Mayra…!" He began to threaten.

"Relax, So-called-ultimate, I just left them after I stole food and stuff. They hide good from humans, but rabbits aren't my well to my taste." The evil version of Sonic muttered with a snicker.

"We're about done here anyway, heheeh. Have to go mess with some humans I say." The green hedgehog grabbed his and Fiona's belongs and began stuffing them into a bag, while Shadow glared at him every time he tried to take something from the ARK.

"Ta ta, I'm sure we'll see each other soon!" Scourge grabbed Fiona's arm, and with a flash of light, disappeared, am emerald I in his hand just before he vanished.

Darkerz looked at his comrades, confused. "When did he learn Chaos Control?!" He asked.

Shadow and Shade shook their heads, stating the obvious.

"Cobalt's Lab."

Within the next few days, everyone seemed to settle down. More and more mobiuns came, the humans it had seemed had gone insane. Hunting Mobiuns, was a horrible thought, they were intelligent beings, and before the humans had embraced them, aside from the skirmish aboard the ARK pertaining to the professor. What was more, it seemed their technology was crumbling, they were resorting to any way and means of hunting them. Those who kept technology, were the most deadliest, per se Eggman. Even he had gone insane with it, and had abandoned his idea's for an empire, focusing only on attacking mobiuns, which he only did secondary before.

Shadow contemplated what Scourge had been talking about. It had been many years since he had seen his two rabbit friends, Luna and Mayra… The last time he had seen them, was after the great war of the tribes, in which the Knuckles clan and Longears had fought. Now that he thought about it, the Quicktails had been there too. Luna's mother Mayra, had become the leader of their tribe, and brought peace between the three tribes. The black hedgehog would have stayed, but other matters had taken ahold of him….

The black hedgehog shook his head, turning to find his sister and the blue cat next to him. They were wearing space suits without helmets. The cat had his arm around the hedge-fox in a loving way and was grinning, his red eyes alight with glee.

"What are you so pleased about?" Shadow asked him, suspicously.

"Nothing!" The cat said, still snickering.

"We found these space suits all over the place, we should where them in case we need to evacuate quickly, and their ventilated specially so we can get into space with just a helmet. When we're not around the oxeganized outside areas of the ARK anyway." Foxbeast said, handing him one.

The black hedgehog took the suit still staring at the cat.

"What? Oh… we're… er… dating as humans call it." The hedge-fox said, smiling.

Shadow nodded, it had been a long time after all. It was time to start afresh for all.

After putting on the suit, Shadow went to find Darkerz, who was most likely tending to the orphans and his wife, who had given birth to a female hedge-bat this time. Though only time would tell if he had the same attitude as Demon, it seemed so, the way she whined and threw her toys around.

He was right of course, that was where Darkerz was, and Rouge was with him. Team Chaotix were helping him with the orphans, though Charmy appeared to be making it worse, as a food fight started.

"SHADOW HELP! AHHHHHHH!" Darkerz appeared terrified, ducking this way and that, while Rouge stayed up in the rafters with their baby, grinning and watching.

Shadow immediately left, they could handle it, and he wasn't about to get into it. Moving on, he was about to go around the corner but stopped, and fell back, watching around the corner.

It was his sister and that cat again, Kenji. They were busy, standing there wrapped tightly in each others arms and kissing deeply. Their tongues danced in each others mouths, their hands groping each other as they expressed their new found love for one another.

The black hedgehog didn't disturb them. His sister needed to find love. It would help her deal with her past and give her a fresh start. He just hoped she knew was she was doing, this cat seemed okay though. He had aided them greatly since they had returned, helping them fix the ARK, find supplies, and get situated. Kenji didn't tell them of his past, but it was apparent that him and Espio had some history together, not a good one, though his relationship with Knuckles and Kight seemed quite close.

Finding yet another direction to go in, he decided to check on his daughter. It was safe here, and things needed to be done, so he allowed the little golden hedgehog to play with Kight again. Though the dog was a sex hound, he was good with kids. He still refused to aid Darkerz though.

As he went down the passage way, he turned, and there down the next hall was Scourge. And Maria was standing with him, while Shade lay unconsious on the floor beside him.

Shadow immediately charged, his one concern to get his children away from the bastard hedgehog. Scourge didn't flee, nor flinch. Instead, he moved sidewards, pulling Maria with him and standing over Shade.

"Calm down, Black, I'm not here to fight. Not this time anyway." Scourge said, wearing a black spacesuit, decorated with hi trademarked flames, though he still had his glasses.

Shadow didn't listen, he knew Scourge too well then to listen to his idle talk. Again he made for Maria and Shade, and this time Scourge drove him to a halt. As the black hedgehog charged with his hands forward, the green met him, their hands clasping together as they tried to outdo the other in power.

"I'm here to warn you, as much as I hate to. Cobalt and Moku have control of the human population, that's why they're hunting us! If they're not stopped, even I'll be killed. So understand this is only to save my own skin, Shadow!" The green hedgehog grunted as he tried to keep Shadow at bay.

Shadow broke away for a moment, glaring and breathing hard, as Scourge did the same. The black hedgehog nodded at Maria, and she came to him, as Scourge stepped away from Shade. Shadow knew that the dark version of Sonic was being truthful, though he never had been in his years. He hardly ever called his enemies by their names to their faces.

Hearing noise behind him, the three turned, and Sonic, Knuckles, Tails, Kenji, and Foxbeast came running down the hall.

They glanced at Scourge, but bombarded Shadow. The humans were attacking, too many, and they were being led by Eggman. Even the ARK couldn't withstand that pressure forever.

"What are we going to do?!" Tails said. "We can't possibly get everyone through the teleporter during such a short time, it's just not possible! The distance is too far, and the interferance too much!"

"Why is Scourge here?! Whatever, we have to evacuate everyone!" Even Sonic was hyper.

As they continued the frantic discussion, Shade stood up, and Shadow halted him before he attacked Scourge again. Obviously his son had not waited for the green hedgehog to explain why he was here. Maria stood close, she had been through many situations like this before, and always her father had kept her safe.

Now, the evil hedgehog who was only helping them to save his own self, interrupted.

"There is… a way to get them off fast." He said with a smirk.

The entire group turned to stare at him, most with untrusting eyes. They were wise to do so, Scourge was capable of dark things, as he had shown before Cobalt and Moku had turned against him, and given him control of experimented beings.

"Do you really think this is the only space station of it's kind? I didn't get this sexy suit from thin air you know. You all are so obsessed with saving the weak, you aren't even going to fight until you get them out of the way, so I have a place to send them. Then you fight. Send them to the station in my dimension." The green hedgehog said, his smirk staying plastered on his face.

Sonic shook his head, they shouldn't trust the bastard, he had betrayed them too many times, his evil ran too deep, he knew. The rest seemed to be thinking it over. Even they knew the evil that Scourge had done and was capable of, this might be the only way.

Finally, they agreed.

Again, everyone would be moved to a new area, the dark space station NIGHT.

Scourge went ahead to make preperations, while the others did likewise for their own side. Everyone was in space suits now, and Meiou was altering the teleporting device into a portal that would reach the alternate station with Tails' help. Scourge hadn't told them how he had made interdimensional travel, but even so he probably couldn't transport them all enmass.

"This isn't a good idea, do you even know what Scourge is capable of?!" Sonic told Shadow. The blue hedgehog was in his own space suit as well, but he wasn't about to let up on what he thought was the wrong decision. He had been following Shadow, Crimzone, and Articzlar around mercilessly.

Finally the two leaders of Doralien and Rubeteiau had had enough.

"Youz needz to shuttup and help! There is no other wayz!" Crimzone said sharply to him. The blue hedgehog was strong, and pure at heart, but there were times when he was wrong, and this was one of them. They couldn't fight the humans yet, not with all the innocent in the battlefield.

Even Shadow, who was tormented that he was leaving the ARK to the humans for now, was doing his duty and aiding people for preparation.

Tails and Meiou finally finished fixing the machine, and reported.

"We're done. It'll hold, and when we make it to the other side, we can disable it remotely. The humans will never find us, no matter how hard they try. And when we need to come back, we'll build a new one that will reconnect to this one remotely, though it will take some time." Tails said.

"We had best get everyone through it quickly, the humans are just about through the defenses!" Meiou said, appearing alarmed.

"Then let's get the hell out of here." Shadow said, holding Maria's hand. The golden hedgehog nodded.

"The humans seem to cause nothing but trouble." She said. Her opinion of the human race was not kind, after being tormented by them nearly her whole life.


End file.
